Department for Transport

Bus Services: Nottinghamshire

Lee Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his department will consider the potential merits of flexible funding for the Bus Service Improvement Plan for Nottinghamshire County Council.

Mr Richard Holden: Nottinghamshire County Council (NCC) was one of the successful authorities, under the leadership of Cllr Ben Bradley MP, which bid for and was awarded up to £18,713,800 for delivery of their Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), which I know you have welcomed as part of very significant investment in Ashfield and across Nottinghamshire since 2019 to support better jobs and transport to access them. In line with the Memorandum of Understanding signed by the Local Transport Authority on 10 November 2022, any changes to the agreed delivery plan should be submitted to the Department via a Project Adjustment Request. The Department is actively engaged with NCC to ensure that the BSIP scheme delivers for local people in Ashfield and across Nottinghamshire and I have asked Departmental officials to be flexible in their approach within the boundaries of the Section 31 grant when tweaking the scheme to developing local priorities.

Transport: East of England

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the findings and recommendations on the transport levelling up mission in the report by the East of England APPG and EELGA entitled Levelling up in the East of England - the East of England's progress towards the Government’s twelve levelling up missions; and if he will make a statement.

Mr Richard Holden: The Department for Transport (DfT) keeps the progress of the Levelling Up transport mission under regular review, in collaboration with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities. The Department has noted the report from the APPG and EELGA. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority received £4.3m funding from the Zero Emission Bus Regional Areas (ZEBRA) scheme for 30 double deck electric buses, which will be introduced on Park and Ride bus routes in Cambridge.

Railway Stations: Knives

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he has had recent discussions with the Chief Constable of the British Transport Police on the adequacy of responses to knife attacks at train stations.

Huw Merriman: The Department regularly meets with the BTP including the Chief Constable to discuss a range of issues which would include knife attacks at train stations. The Secretary of State and the Rail Minister will shortly be meeting with the Chief Constable.

Railways: Standards

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps he is taking to prevent train (a) cancellations, (b) delays and (c) overcrowding.

Huw Merriman: We are working with train operators to ensure their service offer provides capacity where it is most needed, whilst maintaining performance, keeping cancellations to a minimum, and protecting the public purse. In December 2022, industry implemented a timetable specifically designed to deliver performance improvements through some of the busiest parts of the network.

Great British Railways

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, when he plans to announce the location of the headquarters of Great British Railways; and whether he is planning further visits to shortlisted locations.

Huw Merriman: We will announce the chosen location for the GBR HQ shortly. There are no plans for any further visits to the shortlisted locations.

Railways: Commuters

John Spellar: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent assessment his Department has made of the impact of changing work patterns since the covid-19 outbreak on long-term demand for inter-city business rail travel.

Huw Merriman: The Department is developing a number of scenarios for future rail demand as a new normal emerges post-covid-19. The Department is building a robust evidence base to support industry in designing rail timetables that are demand-led and built with flexibility in mind.

Bus Services: Fares

Tom Randall: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the affordability of bus fares.

Mr Richard Holden: The Government recognises the importance of affordable public transport. While decisions on the level of fares are for commercial operators, the Government recognised in the National Bus Strategy the need to make bus services cheaper. We are providing over £1 billion to Local Transport Authorities to help make bus services cheaper. We are also providing £60 million to cap single bus fares across England at £2 from 1 January to 31 March. The £2 bus fare cap is not only an innovative way of helping people save money on their transport costs, but it helps to take 2 million car journeys off our roads. There are 4,600 routes across England in the scheme, including the 44 bus from Nottingham and the 53 and 39 buses. I would be delighted to visit you on your constituency soon.

Railways: Timetables

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the new train timetable on the reliability of rail services.

Huw Merriman: The December 2022 timetable was designed to improve performance through some of the busiest parts of the network, including Manchester, Birmingham and the south east. Since it was introduced, the network has faced considerable challenges, with poor weather (snow, ice, wind, heavy rain), sustained industrial action and a wide-ranging programme of engineering works. The full impact of the timetable on service performance will only become clearer when network disruption stabilises, towards the end of January.

Railways: Timetables

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of the new train timetable on the reliability of rail services.

Huw Merriman: The December 2022 timetable was designed to improve performance through some of the busiest parts of the network, including Manchester, Birmingham and the south east. Since it was introduced, the network has faced considerable challenges, with poor weather (snow, ice, wind, heavy rain), sustained industrial action and a wide-ranging programme of engineering works. The full impact of the timetable on service performance will only become clearer when network disruption stabilises, towards the end of January.

East Coast Main Line: Timetables

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what changes to the East Coast Main Line timetable he is planning for May 2023.

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what benefits his changes to the East Coast timetable will deliver.

Huw Merriman: Work is continuing to develop an East Coast Mainline timetable that meets stakeholder needs, delivers the benefits of the East Coast Upgrade and is affordable in the context of the industry’s financial position.

Railways: Staff

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to take steps to develop a workforce plan for rail industry staffing.

Huw Merriman: The Great British Railways Transition Team is developing a strategic workforce plan to assist employers and build system-wide resilience. This will include a new joined-up, cross-sector training and skills offer to support people at every stage in their career to develop skills. They will also bring experience from outside the rail sector to ensure we build a railway that is fit for the 21st century.

Driving Licences

Damien Moore: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps he has taken to reduce waiting times for driving license applications.

Mr Richard Holden: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency’s online services are the quickest and easiest way to renew a driving licence. There are no delays in successful online applications and customers should receive their driving licence within a few days. There are also no delays in straightforward paper driving licence applications which are being processed within normal turnaround times. Driving licence applications where a medical condition must be investigated before a licence can be issued can take longer. The length of time taken depends on the condition(s) involved and whether further information is required from third parties, for example doctors or other healthcare professionals, before a decision on whether to issue a licence can be made. It is important to note that the majority of applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing they have not been told not to drive by a doctor or optician.

Bus Services: Fares

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether he plans to publish the cost to the public purse of the £2 bus fare cap, by local transport authority, for January 2023.

Mr Richard Holden: The £2 bus fare cap will run from 1 January to 31 March 2023 and has a budget of £60 million. Most of the funding will be paid to commercial operators and the amount they receive is commercially sensitive. Some of the funding will be paid to Local Transport Authorities (LTAs) who either have a Demand Responsive Transport service under the Department’s Rural Mobility Fund scheme and/or who run tender services from operators who were not eligible for the commercial scheme but deliver a socially-necessary service which should also benefit from the option to join the £2 Fare Cap Scheme. The funding for this element of the scheme is being provided on the basis of actual tickets sold via a retrospective reconciliation. DfT will publish funding received by LTAs for this scheme in due course.

Buses and Pedestrians: Accidents

Matt Western: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many accidents involving both buses and pedestrians were recorded in Warwick and Leamington constituency in the 12 months preceding (a) January 2023 and (b) each preceding month for the last two years.

Matt Western: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many accidents involving both buses and cyclists were recorded in Warwick and Leamington constituency in the 12 months preceding (a) January 2023 and (b) each preceding month for the last two years.

Matt Western: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many accidents involving both buses and electric scooters were recorded in Warwick and Leamington constituency in the 12 months preceding (a) January 2023 and (b) each preceding month for the last two years.

Mr Richard Holden: The Department collects data on personal injury road collisions reported to the police. The latest published final figures are for 2021.There were no recorded personal injury collisions in Warwick and Leamington constituency in 2021 involving both buses and pedestrians, buses and pedal cyclists and buses and e-scooters. If a collision didn’t involve injury to a pedestrian or wasn’t reported in the first place, it will not be recorded.

Motor Vehicles: Fuels

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent discussions he has had with petrol retailers on wholesale fuel costs for car users.

Mr Richard Holden: Fuel prices are regularly discussed across government. The Department for Transport (DfT), and the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) engage the motoring sector through the Motorists’ Forum on the cost of living and fuel costs. Both Departments continue to review the findings and recommendations of the Competition and Market Authority (CMA), following the publication of their urgent review on fuel retail market competition and the initial findings of their subsequent in-depth fuel market study. DfT and BEIS will continue to work with the CMA and representatives of the fuel industry on this issue to ensure motorists are paying a fair price at the pump.

Buses: Exhaust Emissions

Dame Diana Johnson: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what assessment he has made of the effectiveness of the zero-emission bus regional areas scheme in decarbonising the bus fleet.

Mr Richard Holden: The Zero Emission Bus Regional Area scheme (ZEBRA) is supporting local authorities to drive decarbonisation of their bus fleets. So far, the Government has awarded £270 million to 17 local transport authorities which will support up to 1,278 zero emission buses (ZEBs). These will remove polluting diesel buses from the road. To inform the assessment of ZEBRA bids, my department required local authorities to complete a tool that calculates the costs and benefits of each bid, including the amount of carbon savings. This information helped target funding to ensure the decarbonisation of the bus fleet in an effective way. Furthermore, we have designed a monitoring and evaluation project for the scheme. This will provide data on the effectiveness of the scheme and the extent to which it delivers its aims and objectives. It will also improve the evidence base on the performance of ZEBs, to support full decarbonisation of the bus fleet.

Driving Licences: Ukraine

Sir Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what progress has been made on an exchange agreement to allow holders of a Ukrainian licence to drive larger vehicles to exchange it for a UK equivalent.

Mr Richard Holden: The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is progressing the work needed to introduce an exchange agreement for Ukrainian lorry and bus licences as quickly as possible. This will be subject to a public consultation and the necessary legal processes.

Public Transport: Finance

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, if he will take steps to redirect funding for road building schemes that have not yet commenced into public transport and active travel, including the funding set aside for the Road Investment Fund 2.

Mr Richard Holden: Government is already investing heavily in public transport schemes, including HS2. We are also supporting one of the fastest international transitions to zero emission vehicles and we have one of the largest publicly available charging networks in Europe. We will however continue to invest in roads which will continue to be vital to our national transport - we are halfway through the second Road Investment Strategy (RIS2) and are committed to delivering the strategy, which funds the operation, maintenance, enhancements and renewals of England’s motorways and principal A-roads.We have also committed to improving local roads through the Major Road Network/ Large Local Majors programme which supports the needs of all road users including public transport and active travel.

Motor Vehicles: Registration

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many V5C forms were administered by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in 2022.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what steps the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is taking to speed up the administration of medical questionnaires submitted by motorists.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, whether his Department holds data on the office occupancy rates of the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency Head Office in Swansea.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many VTL310 forms were administered by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in 2022.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many V267 forms were processed by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in 2022.

Julian Knight: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, how many statutory off-road notifications were received by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency in 2022.

Mr Richard Holden: During 2022, the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency (DVLA): a) issued 16,573,304 V5C (vehicle registration certificates). These will include V5Cs issued following a change of vehicle keeper, change of address or change of vehicle details as well as the first registration of a vehicle.b) administered 5,521 VTL310 forms (replacement trade plates or change of address of the trade plate holder).c) received 6,033 V267 forms (declaration of newness for the registration of a new vehicle).d) received 2,706,957 statutory off road notifications. The length of time taken to deal with a driving licence application where a medical condition(s) has been notified depends on the condition(s) involved and whether further information is required from third parties, for example doctors or other healthcare professionals, before a decision on whether to issue a licence can be made. To reduce waiting times for customers, the law was changed on 20 July 2022 to widen the pool of healthcare professionals who can provide medical information to support an application for a driving licence. The DVLA has also recruited more staff and opened customer service centres in Swansea and Birmingham which are focused on medical applications. The DVLA has introduced a simplified licence renewal process for some medical conditions that has significantly reduced the need for further information from medical professionals and enabled more licensing decisions to be made based on the information provided by the driver. The DVLA is looking at adding more medical conditions to this process. It is important to note that the majority of applicants renewing an existing licence will be able to continue driving while their application is being processed, providing they have not been told not to drive by a doctor or optician. The DVLA does not record occupancy capacity on site daily. Around 58 per cent of the DVLA’s 6,312 staff work all their contracted hours in the office as their roles cannot be carried out remotely. The remaining 42 per cent of staff work a minimum of two days a week in the office, in line with wider civil service rules.

Driving Licences: Ukraine

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, pursuant to the Answer of 22 September 2022 to Question 49052 on Driving Licences: Ukraine, whether he has held recent discussions with his Ukrainian counterpart on taking steps to introduce an agreement to allow holders of a Ukrainian licence to drive large vehicles to exchange it for a UK equivalent.

Mr Richard Holden: Information has been received from the Ukrainian licensing authority on its driver testing and licensing standards which has been assessed by the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency. The Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency is currently progressing the work needed to introduce an exchange agreement for Ukrainian lorry and bus licences as soon as possible subject to a public consultation and the necessary legal process.

Bus Services

Samantha Dixon: What assessment he has made of trends in the level of bus services in England since 2019.

Mr Richard Holden: The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a significant impact to bus services and passenger numbers. To mitigate this, the Government has provided nearly £2 billion in emergency and recovery funding to bus operators and local transport authorities to keep vital bus services running. As a result of this support, bus services in England in 2020/21 ran at over 80% of pre-COVID levels, even though patronage and commercial fare revenue dropped significantly.

Department for Transport: Written Questions

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named-day written questions their Department answered on time in 2022.

Jesse Norman: (a) 100%(b) 99.7%

Space Technology

Jerome Mayhew: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport, what recent steps he has taken to support the launch of rockets and satellites from the UK.

Jesse Norman: The Department for Transport has established the regulatory framework that enabled the first launch into space from the UK. The Department has licensed the UK’s first ever spaceport, Spaceport Cornwall, and the first orbital satellite launch from the UK, operated by Virgin Orbit. The launch on 9 January, though it did not reach its target orbit, demonstrated that our licensing regime and approach to public safety works well.

Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy

Investment Security Unit: Parliamentary Scrutiny

Alicia Kearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has taken steps to ensure that (a) reviews and (b) interventions made by the Investment Security Unit under the National Security and Investment Act are subject to parliamentary scrutiny.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Advanced Research and Invention Agency and Rosalind Franklin Institute: Finance

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, for what reasons (a) ARIA can and (b) Rosaline Franklin Institute cannot carry forward funding across financial years.

George Freeman: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Science: Finance

Chi Onwurah: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many Scientific Institutes his Department funds; and if he will list them.

George Freeman: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

EU Grants and Loans

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding the UK has (a) received and (b) is due to receive from the EU Structural Fund in the period from 31 January 2020 to 31 December 2023.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Fireworks: Regulation

Mr Laurence Robertson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what powers exist for local authorities to restrict the use of fireworks; and if he will make a statement.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Energy Performance Certificates

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of the number of homes in fuel poverty that were upgraded from Energy Performance Certificate (a) Band D and below to (b) Band C and above due to works undertaken through Government-funded schemes in England and Wales in the period between October 2021 and October 2022.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Energy: Meters

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the oral contribution of the Leader of the House on 12 January 2023, Official Report col 716, if he will make an oral statement on forced prepayment meter installations.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Energy Performance Certificates

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of the number of homes in fuel poverty that will be upgraded from Energy Performance Certificate (a) Band D and below to (b) B and C and above due to works undertaken through Government-funded schemes in England and Wales in the period between October 2022 and October 2023.

Graham Stuart: The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Flusso: Shanghai Sierchi Enterprise Management Partnership

Alicia Kearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to take steps to review the takeover of semiconductor start-up Flusso by Shanghai Sierchi Enterprise Management Partnership.

Ms Nusrat Ghani: The acquisition of Flusso was screened and issued with a Final Notification in June 2022 by the then Secretary of State Kwasi Kwarteng. As with any transaction, should the company be sold on, that, or any subsequent acquisition, could be called in if the thresholds under the NSI Act are met. For reasons of commercial confidentiality, acquisitions called in for screening that are subsequently cleared by the National Security and Investment Act are not routinely publicised. The Government will not comment further on the detail of the transaction, or any national security assessment made.

Energy: Meters

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to help prevent misuse of remotely programmable features of energy smart meters by provider companies.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he is taking to protect energy customers from companies exploiting remotely programmable features of energy smartmeters.

Graham Stuart: Ofgem rules require energy suppliers to assess whether installing a prepayment meter, or the remote switching of a smart meter, is safe and reasonably practicable for a customer. Prepayment meters should not be installed, or smart meters remotely switched, without carrying out appropriate assessments, including identifying any vulnerability. When making this assessment, suppliers are required to consider whether a customer’s vulnerability makes a prepayment service a poor choice, for example where medical equipment is required. The Government welcomes the steps Ofgem is taking to ensure energy suppliers comply with these obligations.

Energy Bills Rebate: Hostels

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether hostel occupants who pay service charges for energy are entitled to the single payment under the Energy Bills Support Scheme and the Alternative Fuel Payment scheme; and whether hostels will receive a single payment for each occupant.

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will issue guidance on how the single payment made under the Energy Bills Support Scheme Northern Ireland and the Alternative Fuel Payment scheme to houses in multiple occupation should be distributed to the occupants of those dwellings.

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in the context of the Energy Bills Support Scheme and the Alternative Fuel Payment in Northern Ireland, if his Department will take steps to issue guidance on best practice for people who purchase electricity from a landlord.

Graham Stuart: The Energy Bills Support Scheme and Alternative Fuel Payment, which together total £600, is being paid to households with a domestic electricity meter. Payments are not made per occupant of a property. The Government has introduced regulations requiring intermediaries, including landlords, to pass through the Energy Bill Support Scheme and Alternative Fuel Payment.

Energy: Hydrogen

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an assessment of the potential impact of increased use of hydrogen energy on household bills; and what steps he is taking to promote the use of hydrogen energy by consumers.

Graham Stuart: Low carbon hydrogen is critical to delivering energy security, presents a significant growth opportunity, and will help the UK reach net zero. The UK approach is to promote every aspect of the hydrogen economy: production, demand, networks and storage. The Government will ensure that its approach to developing the hydrogen economy takes into account wider government priorities and policies – including considerations related to the affordability of energy bills. This, combined with targeted innovation funding and a facilitative regulatory environment, will unlock hydrogen uptake across key end use sectors.

Octopus Energy: Prices

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the debate that took place in the House of Lords on 19 December 2022, whether the Octopus energy local tariffs referred to by the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy at House of Lords Hansard vol 826 col 219GC, are community owned.

Graham Stuart: As the licensed supplier, Octopus Energy is responsible for any energy tariffs offered to consumers, including the local ‘Fan Club’ tariffs currently available in Market Weighton, Caerphilly and Halifax. Octopus Energy owns the renewable energy generation associated with these local tariffs.

Energy: Meters

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make it his policy to abolish energy pre-payment meters.

Graham Stuart: Some households prefer to pay for their energy by prepayment meter as this allows them to control and budget the amount they spend and helps mitigate the risk of going into, or exacerbating, existing debt. A ban on using prepayment meters would leave court enforcement as the only recourse in cases of non-payment and large debt.

Renewable Energy: Community Development

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has set targets for the promotion of renewable energy generation from community-based schemes.

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what progress his Department has made on promoting renewable energy generation from community-based schemes.

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department has made an assessment of the impact of the Government’s policies on promoting renewable energy generation from community-based schemes.

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what data his Department holds on the number of community-owned renewable energy generation installations in place in each of the last seven years.

Graham Stuart: The Government’s approach to community energy policy is set out in the Net Zero Strategy. This includes re-establishing the Community Energy Contact Group. This forum considers the role that community energy can play in the delivery of net zero as well as support for community energy projects from Ofgem, which welcomes applications from the sector to the Industry Voluntary Redress Scheme. The Government is also helping local authorities and community energy groups to work together to develop projects within UK Growth Funding schemes.

Royal Mail: Universal Service Obligation

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether it is his policy to maintain the Universal Service Obligation for Royal Mail.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Government currently has no plans to change the minimum requirements of the universal postal service which are set out in the Postal Services Act 2011.

Fuel Poverty

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent estimate he has made of the number of households in fuel poverty.

Graham Stuart: The latest official Fuel Poverty Statistics for England were published in February 2022 concerning 2020 data and projected estimates for 2021 and 2022, and can be found on GOV.UK here: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/fuel-poverty-statistics#2020-statistics. Updated statistics of the number of households in fuel poverty for 2021 and projection estimates for 2022 and 2023 will be produced in the 2023 annual fuel poverty statistics.

Wind Power

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the adequacy of the number of onshore wind farms developed in England since 2015.

Graham Stuart: Since 2015 around 10 onshore wind projects totalling 30 MW have been consented for development in England. The Government is consulting on making changes to the National Policy Planning Framework in England so that local authorities can better respond to the views of their local communities when they wish to host onshore wind infrastructure.

Electric Vehicles: Copper

Angus Brendan MacNeil: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of the amount of copper that will (a) be laid in the UK in the next 17 years and (b) need to be laid to meet 2040 electric vehicle targets.

Graham Stuart: Government analysis in the Electricity Networks Strategic Framework suggests that the distribution network in Great Britain could require up to 380,000km of additional cabling by 2040 compared to the baseline demand scenario. The Government is working with Ofgem and industry to ensure the energy system is ready for additional demand from low-carbon technologies, like electric vehicles. A smart and flexible electricity system, including electric vehicle smart charging, could reduce infrastructure needs, saving up to £10billion per year by 2050.

Carbon Emissions

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps the Government is taking to meet the Sixth Carbon Budget.

Graham Stuart: Taken together, the transitions set out in the Net Zero Strategy for every sector of the UK economy keep the UK on track for Carbon Budgets 4, 5 and 6, its 2030 Nationally Determined Contribution, and ultimately for net zero by 2050.

Business: Energy and Trade

Derek Thomas: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of assessing the energy and trade intensity of individual businesses, including commercial laundries, rather than wider sectors defined by standard industrial classification codes.

Graham Stuart: During the review of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, analysis of a large number of contributions from different individual companies in the private sector in addition to trade associations, the voluntary sector and other types of organisations were assessed. HM Treasury decided which types of business were given additional support in addition to the universal Energy Bills Discount Scheme (EBDS). There are over 5.5 million businesses in the UK, not including other non-domestic consumers. Considering their energy bills on an individual basis would not have been practical.

Energy: Prices

Alex Sobel: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions his Department has had with Ofgem on enforcing supplier Licence Conditions when supporting the vulnerable conditions as in the Consumer Vulnerability Strategy 2025.

Graham Stuart: The Government works closely with energy regulator Ofgem and energy suppliers to ensure vulnerable customers are protected. Ofgem is responsible for ensuring energy suppliers comply with their regulatory obligations. Details of Ofgem’s ongoing supplier compliance and enforcement activity, including individual decisions, are at this link https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/energy-policy-and-regulation/compliance-and-enforcement/retail-compliance-and-enforcement.

Energy: National Policy Statements

Stephen Hammond: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when will an update to the Energy National Policy Statement will be published.

Graham Stuart: In his Autumn Statement, my Rt. Hon. Friend Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer said that ”the Government will continue to ensure that all infrastructure is delivered quickly through reforms to the planning system, including through updating National Policy Statements for transport, energy and water resources during 2023, and through sector-specific interventions.” The Government aims to publish the revised Energy NPSs shortly, but does not yet have a specific date for publication.

Shared Ownership: Wind Power

Alan Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he plans to review the shared ownership provisions in the Infrastructure Act 2015 (Section 38, Schedule 6) as required by that Act; and what assessment he has made of the potential contribution of shared ownership and community energy in producing an increase in locally supported onshore wind to achieve net zero and meet the UK’s decarbonisation targets.

Graham Stuart: The Government wants to ensure that local communities are able to participate in, and benefit from, onshore wind developments as the UK increases renewable deployment to reach net zero. The Government is aware of the requirement to review the provisions in Section 38 and Schedule 6 of the Infrastructure Act 2015 and will do so as soon as is reasonably practicable. The Government will also consult in Spring 2023 on local partnerships for communities who wish to host new onshore wind infrastructure in return for benefits.

Wind Power: Public Consultation

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment has he made of the potential merits of increasing (a) consultation and (b) ongoing involvement of local people when setting up an onshore wind farm.

Graham Stuart: Onshore wind developers should engage with local communities as the UK increases renewable deployment to meet net zero. The Government has set regulations that require onshore wind developers to consult earlier with the local community. It has also published guidance to ensure that local people are involved throughout the process of development.

Tidal Power: Technology

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding he plans to allocate to new tidal power technology in 2023.

Graham Stuart: In December 2022 the Government published the core parameters for all technologies for the fifth Contracts for Difference allocation round (AR), including for tidal stream:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1124052/cfd_ar5_core_parameters.pdf.The final Budget Notice containing full details about AR5 auction parameters will be published in March 2023.

Energy: Prices

Julian Sturdy: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of proportionately smaller energy charges such as smart meter usage fees on (a) the ability of customers to pay their energy bills and (b) the wider cost of living crisis.

Graham Stuart: There is no smart meter usage fee for energy consumers. Consumers' bills include the costs of providing and maintaining a live supply for metering points whether they are smart or traditional. These costs represent a small proportion of overall bills. The Government is committed to protecting consumers from the impact of high energy prices and provided £37 billion in cost of living support last year. This included introducing the Energy Price Guarantee, which protects customers from increases in energy costs by limiting the amount suppliers can charge per unit of energy used and the average standing charges for customers on default tariffs.

Natural Gas: Prices

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, when he expects energy bills to decrease following the drop in price of wholesale gas.

Graham Stuart: Recent reductions in gas wholesale prices are welcome, however the market remains volatile, and prices are still well above historical norms. Suppliers buy energy in advance of when it is delivered and Ofgem determines a maximum price they can charge consumers to recover the cost of this through the price cap. This means there is a lag time between changes in price and it being reflected in consumer bills. The Government has introduced the Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) which will save a typical household around £900 this winter, on top of a £400 discount through the Energy Bill Support Scheme.

Energy Bill Relief Scheme: Charities

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make it his policies to extend the energy price cap relief scheme for (a) the Scouts and (b) other charities.

Graham Stuart: The Government will introduce the new Energy Bill Discount Scheme from April 2023. All eligible businesses, charities and the public sector will receive a discount on high energy bills until 31 March 2024. The scheme will provide a discount on high energy costs to give businesses certainty while limiting taxpayers’ exposure to volatile energy markets.

Energy: Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what estimate he has made of the number of disabled people who cannot heat their homes to a safe temperature.

Graham Stuart: BEIS does not hold this data.

Energy: Disability

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps he will take to ensure that disabled people and their families are able to heat their homes to a safe temperature.

Graham Stuart: The Government is committed to protecting vulnerable customers, particularly those with disabilities. The Government’s Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical British household around £900 this winter. In addition, the Energy Bill Support Scheme gives households £400 off their energy bills, meaning a typical household will save around £1300. Around six million people across the UK who receive a Disability Living Allowance also received a one-off payment of £150 in September.

Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make it his policy to reallocate remaining funds from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund in a way that allows local authorities to increase the (a) reach and (b) uptake of the scheme across all communities by 2030.

Graham Stuart: The 2019 Conservative Manifesto committed to a £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) over a 10-year period to improve the energy performance of social homes. Grant funding allocated to SHDF has totalled over £1bn. In the Autumn Statement, the Government announced £6 billion of new Government funding that will be made available from 2025 to 2028 for energy efficiency. The design of future waves of the SHDF will consider all relevant evidence to ensure effective delivery.

Social Rented Housing: Insulation

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of allocating new funding to retrofitting social housing stock with insulation; and if he will make it his policy to support local authorities in accelerating such measures.

Graham Stuart: The Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator project awarded around £62m of grant funding to Local Authorities in 2021. The Government launched Wave 1 of the SHDF in 2021 and awarded around £179m of grant funding to Local Authorities for delivery from 2022 into 2023. The Wave 2.1 competition, which closed in November 2022, will allocate up to £800m of grant funding to Social Housing Landlords, including Local Authorities, with successful projects likely to be notified in March 2023. This Parliament, the Government has committed to investing £6.6bn in energy efficiency, with the Autumn Statement announcing an additional £6bn from 2025-2028.

Electricity Generation: Infrastructure

Kenny MacAskill: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the announcement in November 2021 that two 2GW high-voltage direct current (HVDC) electricity ‘superhighways’ will be established between Torness and Hawthorn Pit (Scotland to England Green Link 1) and between Peterhead and Drax (Scotland to England Green Link 2), what estimate he has made of the amount of energy that will be transferred via these links each year; and whether his Department plans to make payments to (a) the Scottish Government or (b) Scottish communities in relation to the scheme.

Graham Stuart: The Government welcomes strategic network projects such as the Torness and Peterhead links, and their acceleration to support 2030 offshore wind ambition, as set out in in Ofgem’s Accelerated Strategic Transmission Investment framework. National Grid ESO estimates that these links will facilitate the transmission of an additional 5 TWh of energy from North to South in their first year. Following a commitment in the British Energy Security Strategy, the Government is also looking to consult on community benefit options for communities hosting transmission network infrastructure.

Post Offices: Energy

Carla Lockhart: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether the Government is planning to provide support to post offices towards the cost of energy bills beyond March 2023.

Graham Stuart: The Government will introduce the new Energy Bill Discount Scheme from April 2023. All eligible businesses, charities and the public sector will receive a discount on high energy bills until 31 March 2024. The scheme will provide a discount on high energy costs to give businesses certainty while limiting taxpayers’ exposure to volatile energy markets.

Energy Bills Rebate: Northern Ireland

Carla Lockhart: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether authorisation was sought from the European Union for the delivery of the Energy Bill Support Scheme in Northern Ireland in the context of Article 10 of the Northern Ireland Protocol and state aid rules.

Graham Stuart: The Energy Bills Support Scheme and Alternative Fuel Payment does not engage Article 10 of the Northern Ireland Protocol, as the schemes will help households with their energy costs this winter.

Green Homes Grant Scheme: Bristol South

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many jobs the Green Homes Grant has supported in Bristol South constituency.

Graham Stuart: An evaluation of the effectiveness of the voucher scheme, including analysis of scheme outcomes and evidence collected from scheme applicants and other stakeholders, is being undertaken by an independent research organisation. The evaluation includes an assessment of the effect of the Green Homes Grant Voucher Scheme on jobs at national level with findings available in Summer 2023.

Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund: Bristol South

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will make an estimate of the number of homes that have been retrofitted through the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund in Bristol South constituency since the introduction of that fund.

Graham Stuart: The 2019 Conservative Manifesto committed to a £3.8bn Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) over a 10-year period. The SHDF Demonstrator and Wave 1 awarded a combined total of around £240m of grant funding to Local Authorities, with data held on local authority-led projects rather than at a constituency level. The SHDF Wave 2.1 competition, which closed on 18th November 2022, will allocate up to £800m of grant funding, with successful projects likely to be notified in March 2023.

Energy: Housing

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to increase the rate of energy efficiency measure installations in homes in Bristol South constituency.

Graham Stuart: The Government is committed to improving the energy performance of homes across the country, including in Bristol South. The Government is already investing £6.6 billion over this parliament on decarbonising heat and energy efficiency measures. An additional £6 billion of new Government funding, announced in the Autumn Statement, will be made available from 2025 to 2028. This provides long-term funding certainty, supporting the growth of supply chains, and ensuring the UK can scale up delivery over time.

Charities: Energy

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of a social energy tariff for charities.

Graham Stuart: The Energy Bill Relief Scheme provides a discount on the wholesale element of gas and electricity bills to ensure that all eligible charities are protected from excessively high energy costs over the winter period. The new Energy Bill Discount Scheme will run from April 2023 until March 2024 and will continue to provide support to eligible charities. Wider support is available to help charities with costs. This includes a reduction in VAT, from 20% to 5% and exclusion from the main rates of the Climate Change Levy on some of the energy they use.

Warm Home Discount Scheme

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether all eligible applications to the Warm Home Discount Scheme will received funds or if the number of applications approved will be capped.

Graham Stuart: As part of the Warm Home Discount scheme in Scotland, energy suppliers that offer a Broader Group scheme are obligated to provide a minimum number of rebates to meet their obligations. It is at the discretion of energy suppliers to determine how they run their applications for Broader Group rebates and how many applicants will receive a rebate. Suppliers may close their schemes for applications when they have met a minimum number.

Warm Home Discount Scheme: Park Homes

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what funding has been allocated to the Park Homes Warm Discount Scheme for 2022-23.

Graham Stuart: In the 2022/23 scheme year, energy suppliers have contributed £570,000 to the Park Homes Warm Home Discount scheme. The Government estimates that 3,116 households will receive a rebate under the scheme.

Warm Home Discount Scheme: Park Homes

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households received funding from the Park Homes Warm Home Discount Scheme in (a) 2020-2021 and (b) 2021-2022; and how much funding was made available in each of those years.

Graham Stuart: The table below provides the relevant breakdown for 2020/21 and 2021/22: FundingNumber of households receiving a payment2020/21£428,6803,0622021/22£396,0002,622

Warm Home Discount Scheme

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how many households received funding from the Warm Home Discount Scheme in (a) 2020-2021, (b) 2021-2022 and (c) 2022-23 to date; and how much funding was made available in each of those these years.

Graham Stuart: The table below provides the relevant breakdown for 2020/21 and 2021/22:  SpendingNumber of households receiving a rebateNumber of customers receiving support from Industry Initiative activities2020/21£350.7 million2.26 million468,3822021/22£359.4 million2.32 million327,217 For 2022/23, the Government does not yet have data on the number of households that have received funding. The combined spending target for this scheme year across England and Wales and Scotland is £523 million.

Energy Bill Relief Scheme: Food

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he plans to take steps to extend the Energy Bill Relief scheme to businesses in the food and drink supply chain, including manufacturers and hospitality venues, after March 2023.

Graham Stuart: Following the HM Treasury review of the Energy Bill Relief Scheme, a new energy support scheme for businesses, including within the hospitality sector, will run from April 2023 until March 2024. Eligible non-domestic customers that have a contract with a licensed energy supplier and are exposed to high prices will see a discount applied to their gas and electricity bill. A substantially higher level of support will be provided to businesses in sectors identified as being the most energy and trade intensive. The Energy Bill Discount Scheme strikes a balance between supporting businesses and limiting taxpayer’s exposure to volatile energy markets, with a cap set at £5.5 billion.

Energy Bills Discount Scheme

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has made an assessment of the potential impact of the timing of the announcement of the extension of the energy bills support scheme for businesses on businesses' financial preparation.

Graham Stuart: In September 2022, as part of the announcement on the Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS), the Government committed to carry out a review of the scheme and publish details of what support would be given from 1 April 2023. The aim was to give businesses certainty as soon as possible on further support after the EBRS. Over the course of the review, Government engaged with businesses, trade associations and other organisations to understand which are most in need of further support after the EBRS ended.

Energy Bills Rebate: Meters

Afzal Khan: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what recent steps his Department has taken to ensure that householders on sub-meters receive the £400 Energy Bills Support Scheme payment as soon as possible.

Graham Stuart: As an extension to the Energy Bills Support Scheme, alternative funding is being provided to around 900,000 households without a direct relationship with a domestic electricity supplier. Some residents with sub-meters may be eligible for the Energy Bill Support Scheme Alternative Funding, which will provide equivalent support of £400 for energy bills to households without a domestic electricity supply. This includes those who do not have a domestic electricity meter or a direct relationship with an electricity supplier. Further details will be published later this month.

Energy: Meters

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2023 to Question 111702, whether his Department has asked Ofgem for an assessment of the level of compliance with current rules on forced prepayment meter installations.

Graham Stuart: BEIS Ministers and officials regularly hold discussions with Ofgem and energy suppliers on a range of issues relating to the energy markets. As the independent regulator, Ofgem is responsible for ensuring licensed energy suppliers are complying with their rules. Details of Ofgem’s ongoing supplier compliance and enforcement activity, including individual decisions, are at this link: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/energy-policy-and-regulation/compliance-and-enforcement/retail-compliance-and-enforcement.

District Heating: Regulation

Sarah Olney: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will bring forward legislative proposals to bring heat networks under the remit of Ofgem.

Graham Stuart: The Government remains committed to the important measures in the Energy Security Bill to deliver change in the energy system over the long term, including giving new powers to Ofgem as the preferred regulator for the heat networks sector. The Energy Security Bill is being taken forward in this Parliamentary session. The Government expects Ofgem to take up its role as regulator in 2024.

Energy Charter Treaty

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether his Department plans to commence a withdrawal from the Energy Charter Treaty in the event that the modernisation package negotiated in 2022 is not approved; and if he will make a statement.

Graham Stuart: The UK has been a strong advocate for ECT modernisation. At the Energy Charter Conference on 22 November, the decision to adopt the modernised Treaty was postponed. The UK has been closely monitoring the situation surrounding the Energy Charter Treaty’s modernisation process, including the positions taken by other Contracting Parties, and will continue to do so.

Energy: Meters

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to analysis from Citizens Advice on prepayment meters, published on 12 January 2023, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of that organisation's finding that 3.2 million people ran out of credit on their prepayment meter in 2022 because they could not afford to top up.

Graham Stuart: Ofgem has in place licence conditions regarding Prepayment meter (PPM) customers at risk of self-disconnection. These include requirements on suppliers to offer emergency and friendly-hours credit to all PPM customers and to offer additional support credit to customers in vulnerable circumstances. I have met with suppliers to stress that they must meet their regulatory requirements and do all they can to support customers to stay on supply. I have also asked that Ofgem undertakes further compliance activity in this area. The Government is providing support totalling £900 for the average household this winter, this is in addition to the £400 energy bill discount and extra payments to low-income households and pensioners.

Energy: Meters

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had discussions with Ofgem on strengthening potential sanctions on energy suppliers who do not comply with Ofgem's rules on fitting prepayment meters.

Graham Stuart: Ministers and officials regularly meet with Ofgem to discuss a range of energy retail issues. As the independent regulator, Ofgem is responsible for ensuring licensed energy suppliers comply with their rules. More information can be found at: https://www.ofgem.gov.uk/publications/ofgem-completes-review-how-suppliers-support-customers-payment-difficulty.

Wind Power: Vacancies

Karl Turner: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether he has had recent discussions with the Secretary of State for (a) the Home Department and (b) Transport on the implications for their policies of demand for (i) construction and (ii) maintenance crew in the offshore wind labour market.

Graham Stuart: My Rt Hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy has not had any discussions with either of my Rt Hon. Friends on this particular topic.

Floating Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what his planned timetable is for the allocation of funding under the Floating Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme.

Graham Stuart: BEIS is currently processing information provided to the department through the Request for Information process that ran over the summer for which there was significant interest. The Government will set out the next steps on the Floating Offshore Wind Manufacturing Investment Scheme in due course.

Wind Power: Celtic Sea

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to enable the establishment of a local supply chain for (a) Floating Offshore Wind and (b) the maximum economic benefit of developing the Celtic Sea.

Graham Stuart: The Government is committed to realising the economic opportunity of floating offshore wind, underlined by its ambition in the British Energy Security Strategy to deploy up to 5GW of floating wind by 2030. The Crown Estate will launch its 4GW Celtic Sea leasing round later this year, within which developers will be expected to outline their approach to supply chains. As part of the Contract for Difference process, Supply Chain Plans ensure developers make the investments needed to upgrade supply chain capability. The Government has introduced Supply Chain Plan requirements to all floating wind projects in Allocation Round 5.

Energy Bills Rebate

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether a person who left a property in Northern Ireland after 2nd January, and moved to a new property before 16th January can receive the single payment under the Energy Bills Support Scheme and the Alternative Fuel Payment in their new property.

Graham Stuart: The qualifying date to receive the £600 payment from the Government under the Energy Bills Support Scheme and the Alternative Fuel payment is 08:00 2 January 2023. Customers of electricity suppliers who had an account at this point will receive the payment.

Energy Bill Relief Scheme

Pat McFadden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, in which sectors have non-domestic customers received funding under the Energy Bill Relief Scheme since its introduction.

Graham Stuart: The Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) is available to eligible non-domestic customers in all sectors, including businesses, charities and the public sector. The EBRS discount is applied directly to the energy bills of eligible non-domestic customers by their energy providers.

Energy Bill Relief Scheme

Pat McFadden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much money has been paid under the Energy Bill Relief Scheme since its introduction.

Graham Stuart: The Energy Prices Act 2022 enacted the legislation for the Energy Bill Relief Scheme. Under this legislation, the Secretary of State is required to report expected expenditure as soon as reasonably practicable after the end of any quarter. Energy Bill Relief Scheme expenditure will be included in the next report.

Energy Bill Relief Scheme: Hospitality Industry

Pat McFadden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much money was been awarded to non-domestic customers in the hospitality industry under the Energy Bill Relief Scheme since its introduction.

Graham Stuart: The Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) discount is applied directly to the energy bills of eligible non-domestic customers by their energy providers. Therefore the Government does not have the data available at industry level.

Energy Bill Relief Scheme: Energy Intensive Industries

Pat McFadden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much money has been paid to non-domestic customers in energy-intensive industries under the Energy Bill Relief Scheme since its introduction.

Graham Stuart: The Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) discount is applied directly to the energy bills of eligible non-domestic customers by their energy providers. Therefore the Government does not have the data available at industry level.

Energy Bill Relief Scheme: Motor Vehicles

Pat McFadden: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much money has been paid to non-domestic customers in the automotive industry under the Energy Bill Relief Scheme since its introduction.

Graham Stuart: The Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) discount is applied directly to the energy bills of eligible non-domestic customers by their energy providers. Therefore the Government does not have the data available at industry level.

Energy: Meters

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, if he will ask energy companies to equalise daily standing charges on a standard meter with those on pre-payment meters.

Graham Stuart: Energy supply licence conditions state that the difference in price between methods of supplying energy must reflect the actual cost to the supplier for that method. The costs of managing pre-payment meters compared to standard meters are higher due to the different metering requirements and different payment systems. Ofgem is responsible for monitoring compliance with these terms.

Energy: Consumers

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what steps his Department is taking to prepare for the potential effect on consumers of trends in the level of energy bills in winter 2023-24.

Graham Stuart: The Government has launched the ‘It All Adds Up’ energy saving campaign, with simple, low or no-cost actions that households can take to cut energy use and save money now, and on an ongoing basis. The Energy Price Guarantee (EPG) operates until March 2024 to apply a subsidy where energy prices exceed the target price set by Government. As set out in the Autumn Statement, the Government will develop a new approach to consumer protection in energy markets, which will apply from April 2024. The Government has committed to work with consumer groups and industry to consider the best approach, including options such as social tariffs, as part of wider retail market reforms.

Government Departments: Correspondence

Alexander Stafford: To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much the Government has spent on sending letters in each of the last five years.

Kevin Hollinrake: The Department can only answer for BEIS. BEIS publishes all its spending on GOV.UK here including the postage spend in the last five years.

Attorney General

Attorney General: Written Questions

Jessica Morden: To ask the Attorney General, what proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named-day written questions their Department answered on time in 2022.

Michael Tomlinson: The proportion of ordinary and named-day written Parliamentary questions answered on time in 2022 by the Attorney General’s Office is given in the following table: Question TypeDue for AnswerAnswered on TimeNamed-Day8572 (85%) Ordinary Written165135 (82%)Total250 The figures quoted in this answer are internal statistics compiled by the Attorney General’s Office. The official statistics will be published by the Table Office in the usual way.

Department of Health and Social Care

Mental Health Services: Per Capita Costs

Helen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much funding per head is spent on mental health services in the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System; and how that figure compares to the national average.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Social Services: Finance

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how much of the £500 million Adult Social Care Discharge Fund has been received by (a) care home providers and (b) domiciliary care providers.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Social Services: Finance

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to his oral statement on NHS Winter Pressures of 9 January 2023, Official Report, column 286, how much of the £200 million additional funding has been received by (a) care home and (b) domiciliary care providers as of 16 January 2023.

Helen Whately: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Coronavirus: Screening

Bill Esterson: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether covid-19 lateral flow tests issued by (a) the NHS and (b) pharmacies are able to detect current and emergent variants of covid-19.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Community Care: Autism and Learning Disability

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the RedQuadrant report entitled Building the Right Support: An analysis of funding flows published on 14 June 2022, what progress his Department has made in response to the primary recommendation of that report on the need for comprehensive financial monitoring on the specific group of people who are within the scope of BTRS covering NHS and local government expenditure.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Members: Correspondence

Tim Loughton: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the correspondence from the hon. Member for East Worthing and Shoreham of 6 September 2022 and 1 November 2022, for what reason (a) he will not meet Evusheld campaigners and (b) his correspondence of 15 December 2022 did not refer to the request for a meeting.

Maria Caulfield: The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

Social Services: Finance

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what percentage of his Department's financial support package for social care has been spent on staff wages.

Helen Whately: The information requested is not held centrally.

East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust: Waiting Lists

Tom Hunt: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times at (a) East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust and (b) Ipswich Hospital.

Will Quince: It is the responsibility of East Suffolk and North Essex NHS Foundation Trust (ESNEFT), of which Ipswich Hospital is a part of, to take the steps required to reduce waiting times at the trust. ESNEFT have established an admission avoidance programme, where only patients who need to be in hospital are admitted, following systematic triage by ambulance and community care services, reducing bed occupancy in the hospitals.The trust now run extended clinics and operating lists throughout evenings and weekends to significantly increase the number of patients seen. This includes all services from consultations to diagnostic tests. The new established Community Diagnostic Centre at Clacton Hospital is providing a range of diagnostic services for outpatients and general practitioner referrals and are currently offer computerised tomography scans within just two weeks of referral. ESNEFT are reforming to provide more in the community, using virtual wards and establishing an effective discharge system.

Health Services: Technology

Sir George Howarth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to provide patients with (a) equitable access to technology to support their care and (b) greater agency in decision making concerning their care.

Will Quince: Supporting patients’ equitable access to innovative technologies and empowered decision-making in care are key priorities for the Department and NHS England (NHSE).The Department’s Plan for Digital and Social Care details significant steps to promote the uptake of new technologies, particularly digital products, and improve access, experience and outcomes for all. The Department and NHSE further strive to mitigate against risks of digital exclusion through Integrated Care Boards’ work and the upcoming framework for National Health Service (NHS) action on digital inclusion by May 2023.Enhancing access to and uptake of emerging transformative technologies, especially digital ones, also aims to help patients gain greater control over their care by making informed choices that address their strengths, needs and preferences, as envisioned by the NHS Long Term Plan and its new service model for the NHS centred around personalised care.

Elective Recovery Taskforce

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what indicators his Department plans to use to help measure progress made through the Elective Recovery Taskforce.

Will Quince: The Elective Recovery Taskforce group will make recommendations to the Department and the Prime Minister for how we can increase the volume of elective consultations and procedures as far as possible via the independent sector to tackle the backlog.

Community Diagnostic Centres and Surgical Hubs: Staff

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what measures his Department have incorporated into the plans for surgical hubs and diagnostic centres for adequate levels of staffing.

Will Quince: Action continues to be taken to increase and support the existing National Health Service workforce capacity. There are over 42,000 more staff working in the NHS than a year ago, including over 10,500 nurses and almost 4,700 doctors. NHS England is ensuring that systems develop robust Community Diagnostic Centres workforce plans, which include reliable recruitment routes to deliver the required uplift in staffing. Digital diagnostic investment is anticipated to deliver an approximate 10% uplift in workforce productivity which will also lessen the burden on staffing diagnostic services. To meet the growing demand on the diagnostic services, the Department is working with NHS England on a programme of rapid international recruitment to support with immediate needs, with wider utilisation of support workers across professions.The surgical hub programme has workforce guidance designed to assist providers and Integrated Care Systems in planning the workforce requirements for new or expanded surgical hubs. It outlines key enablers for successful workforce recruitment, retention and planning and helpful operational tools such as e-rostering and staff passports.

Dermatology: Waiting Lists

Theresa Villiers: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to reduce NHS waiting times for dermatology treatment.

Will Quince: In the autumn statement the Department committed to an additional £3.3 billion per year until 2024/25 to respond to significant pressures facing the National Health Service. This is on top of the £8 billion already committed until 2025 to reduce waiting times across specialisms, including for dermatology.To support providers the Outpatient Recovery and Transformation Programme has introduced initiatives to improve dermatology services, including developing guidance to support with the clinical prioritisation of waiting lists and implementation guidance for specialist advice and guidance in dermatology.

Coronavirus: Vaccination

Andrew Bridgen: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, how many and what proportion of clinical NHS staff have received a covid-19 booster vaccination in the most recent period for which data is available.

Maria Caulfield: The United Kingdom Health Security Agency publish monthly reports on seasonal influenza and COVID-19 vaccine uptake in frontline healthcare workers. Data published to the end of November 2022 showed that in 165 NHS trusts providing a return, 338,602 frontline healthcare workers had had a COVID-19 vaccine since 1 September 2022, an uptake of 36.3%.

Mental Health Services

Daisy Cooper: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether funding for all 40 NHS Wellbeing Hubs will continue beyond March 2023.

Will Quince: The staff mental health and wellbeing hubs were set up in October 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, using additional non-recurrent funding until 2022/23. A final decision is yet to be made on the funding of these hubs for 2023/24.

Dental Services

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment has he made of the potential implications for his Departments policies of the loss of units of dental activity (a) nationally and (b) in York.

Neil O'Brien: We are monitoring Dental Statistics for England, published annually by NHS Digital, which includes information on Units of Dental Activity (UDA). The following table shows the amount of UDA’s delivered in England and York from 2018/19 to 2021/22.Reporting yearUDA in EnglandUDA in York2018/1983,057,601332,1332019/2078,828,644313,8922020/2124,084,76693,2682021/2257,087,445206,003Source: NHS DigitalNote:Data for 2022/23 is yet to be published since the financial year is yet to close.The information shows that UDA delivery rates were significantly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this, in September 2022, we announced ‘Our plan for patients’ which outlines how we will meet oral health needs and increase access to dental care whilst making the National Health Service dental contract more attractive to dental practices. These changes have been implemented, including through regulations that came into effect on 25 November 2022.Further contractual changes came into effect on 28 December 2022 to enable the commissioning of 110% of contracted UDAs. This empowers commissioners to enable practices to expand and deliver more NHS care, particularly in those areas where NHS dentistry is less prevalent. Further reform is planned for 2023.

Fluoride: Drinking Water

Mr Ranil Jayawardena: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the study entitled Evaluation of water fluoridation scheme in Cumbria: the CATFISH prospective longitudinal cohort study published in Public Health Research in November 2022, if his Department will commission a long-tern study into the impact of water fluoridation on levels in children of (a) fluorosis, (b) obesity and (c) autism.

Neil O'Brien: The Department funds research on health and social care through the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The NIHR welcomes funding applications for research into any aspect of human health including the impact of water fluoridation in adults and children. The usual practice of the NIHR is not to ring-fence funds for expenditure on particular topics. We monitor the effects of the water fluoridation arrangements on the health of the populations served by schemes and publish a report every four years. The latest report, published in 2022, supports earlier findings and wider evidence that water fluoridation, at levels recommended in the United Kingdom, is a safe and effective public health measure to reduce dental decay and inequalities in dental health.

Life Expectancy: East of England

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the findings and recommendations on the health levelling up mission in the report by the East of England APPG and EELGA entitled Levelling up in the East of England - the East of England's progress towards the Government’s twelve levelling up missions; and if he will make a statement.

Neil O'Brien: We welcome the report published by the East of England APPG and East of England LGA on levelling up in the East of England. The Government is committed to the Levelling Up Mission to improve Healthy Life Expectancy (HLE) by five years by 2035 and to narrow the gap by 2030. We are committed to supporting individuals to live healthier lives by improving access to and levelling-up health and care across the country. The Department continues to review how best to improve healthy life expectancy and further information will be available in due course.

Care Homes: General Practitioners

Helen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment his Department has made of the impact on general practice of the decisions to (a) block book beds in care homes for those assessed as medically fit to discharge and (b) establish virtual wards.

Neil O'Brien: NHS England Virtual wards enable acute level care at home, with the current model of care being led by a lead healthcare provider within either an acute or community provider with collaboration across partners within a system. It is not expected based on the modelling of the national pathways that capacity is drawn from primary care and as implementation develops, we will be able to assess the impact across system health and care partners more accurately. Similarly, the recent £200 million for bedded step-down care will be led by multidisciplinary teams and we will closely monitor the impact on all partners to ensure the programme delivers the anticipated benefits.

Healthy Start Scheme

Ben Lake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that people are able to (a) access and (b) receive responses from the Healthy Start scheme via (i) phone and (ii) email in a timely manner.

Neil O'Brien: The NHS Business Services Authority (NHSBSA) delivers the Healthy Start scheme on behalf of the Department of Health and Social Care. People can contact NHS Healthy Start by phone, email and via the NHS Healthy Start social media channels on Twitter and Facebook. The telephone helpline is open between 8am and 6pm Monday to Friday, except for public holidays. A translation service is also available.In addition to this, an automated telephone line is available to support customers with certain queries, for example to report a lost or stolen card or to check the balance on their prepaid card. This phone line is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Additional resource was added to the NHSBSA’s customer contact centre in June 2022. Between July and December 2022, the average waiting time to speak to an advisor was 33 seconds. Customers can expect a response to their email within two working days.

Healthy Start Scheme

Ben Lake: To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 6 December 2022 to Question 98767, when he plans to publish the most recent data on uptake of the Healthy Start scheme.

Neil O'Brien: We continue to work with the NHS Business Services Authority and the Department for Work and Pensions to obtain data on the uptake of the Healthy Start scheme. This will then be published as quicky as possible.

Department for Education

Numeracy: Special Educational Needs

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what discussions his Department has held with the provider of the Multiplication Tables Check programme to offer an access adaptation for Year 4 students who require additional time through a Education Health and Care or SEND support plan.

Nick Gibb: The Multiplication Tables Check (MTC) assesses fluent recall of times tables. Pupils answer 25 times tables questions, with six seconds to answer each question. As a check of recall ability, the time available for each pupil to answer is a key element of the MTC.A range of arrangements are available to support pupils with additional needs. Schools should explore which of these may be most appropriate to support pupils with education, health and care plans and special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) support plans in completing the MTC programme.Although the check was designed to be accessible to most pupils, in exceptional circumstances, even with the use of the range of available arrangements, headteachers may decide that some pupils will not be able to participate in the check.If appropriate, a headteacher should discuss this decision with the pupil’s Special Educational Needs and Disability Coordinator (SENDCO), educational psychologist, medical officer, or other specialist staff. When a pupil is not entered for the check, schools must explain the decision to the pupil’s parents in advance. If appropriate, they should provide parents with documentary evidence to support the decision. To mitigate the effect on pupils unable to participate in the check, schools should also explain how they are helping the pupil with their multiplication tables.Multiplication and division in a wider context will continue to be assessed through the Key Stage 1 and Key Stage 2 mathematics assessments, enabling further opportunity for pupils to demonstrate their understanding of multiplication tables.

Pupils: Assessments

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of promoting other forms of assessment in schools alongside written exams.

Nick Gibb: Examinations are the best and fairest way of judging pupils’ performance. They have a level of impartiality that other forms of assessment do not have, with everyone being assessed on the same subject in the same amount of time. They are marked in the same way, and they are marked anonymously.The independent qualifications regulator, Ofqual, was clear during the reform of GCSEs and A levels that non-exam assessment (NEA) should only be used when it is the only valid way to assess essential elements of a particular subject. There are a number of GCSE and A/AS level qualifications where part of the qualification is assessed through NEA, such as in modern foreign languages, and art and design. There are also a larger number of Key Stage 4 vocational qualifications, including Technical Awards, where NEA is used to assess practical abilities and competencies.

Schools: Teaching Methods

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of promoting project-based learning in schools.

Nick Gibb: The Department has no plans to promote project-based learning in schools.

Teachers: Training

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of the Initial Teacher Training provider reaccreditation process on the level of teacher (a) supply and (b) recruitment.

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the impact of the Initial Teacher Training provider reaccreditation process on the even distribution of teacher training across the regions in England.

Nick Gibb: In the 2019 Teacher Recruitment and Retention Strategy, the Department committed to reviewing the Initial Teacher Training (ITT) market, with the aim to make it work more effectively. Reforms to the ITT market will help all trainees across the country receive quality ITT provision and further support at every stage of their teaching career.179 providers have been accredited to deliver ITT from September 2024, following an accreditation process designed to drive up the quality and consistency of ITT which leads to Qualified Teacher Status. These providers will cover all regions of the country and include new entrants to the market. As the market develops over the next two years, the Department will continue to monitor the availability of provision across England to ensure the ITT market is ready and able to deliver teacher training programmes in every part of the country from September 2024.Safeguarding teacher supply is a priority. The Department has funded recruitment and retention to attract applications to ITT and continually monitors provision levels to ensure that there are enough ITT places to meet teacher recruitment targets. This involves working with a wide range of stakeholders to ensure there are sufficient ITT places across the country from the 2024/25 academic year.In addition, the Department is focusing on utilising local knowledge and relationships as well as prioritising a sector led approach to sufficiency. This includes working with a range of sector stakeholders to ensure a wide range of views are represented, including those of the Universities Council for the Education of Teachers (UCET), the National Association of School-Based Teacher Trainers (NASBTT) and different Higher Education Institutions (HEI) representative groups.To support these partnership conversations, the Department published guidance on 12 December 2022 and confirmed that funding will be available to support the costs of developing partnerships in key regions. The guidance can be accessed at: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1123075/Initial_teacher_training__ITT__-_forming_partnerships.pdf.

Gypsy Roma Traveller History Month

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what plans she has to mark Gypsy, Roma, Traveller history month in schools in June 2023.

Nick Gibb: Schools are free to decide which events to commemorate and what activities to put in place to support pupils’ understanding of significant events. This includes particular months or days dedicated to specific communities, such as the Gypsy, Roma and Traveller history month in June.Schools also have the opportunity to promote events though the curriculum, for example through subjects such as history and citizenship. Resources are available from experts within the communities themselves, and from bodies such as the Historical Association. Within citizenship teaching at Key Stage 4, pupils should be taught the diverse national, regional, religious and ethnic identities in the United Kingdom, and the need for mutual respect and understanding of all.

Members: Correspondence

John Penrose: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when she will respond to the correspondence (a) 23rd August, (b) 13thOctober and (c) 24thNovember 2022 from the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mareon behalf of constituentKathryn Francis on the Schools Bill.

Nick Gibb: I can confirm that a response has been sent to the hon. Member for Weston-super-Mare.

Schools: Sports

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether her Department plans to publish an updated School Sport and Activity Action Plan within the next 12 months.

Nick Gibb: The Government has committed to publish an update to the school sport and activity action plan this year to align with the new sport strategy being developed by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport. The update will provide details on further action to help all pupils play a wide range of sport, both in PE and sport lessons, and through extra-curricular activity.

Social Workers: Registration

Sir Alan Campbell: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps he is taking to help social workers affected by technical issues re-register to retain their right to practice.

Claire Coutinho: Social Work England, the regulator for social workers in England, is confident there were no technical issues with their systems during this registration period.Social workers in England have a period of 91 days to renew their registration and must ensure they fulfil all the registration criteria by the deadline given to complete it. Those social workers who intended to renew but did not between 1 September and 30 November 2022 can apply to restore their registration.

Pupils: Travellers

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she is taking to tackle racism towards Gypsy, Roma, Traveller communities in schools.

Claire Coutinho: All children and young people must be treated fairly. There is no place for hate or prejudice in our education system.Schools play an important role in preparing pupils for later life. This involves supporting pupils to understand the society in which they grow up and teaching about respect for other people and for difference. Under the Equality Act 2010, schools must not discriminate against a pupil in a number of respects because of a characteristic protected by the Act, including race. The department has published guidance for schools on how to comply with their duties under the Equality Act 2010, and it is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/equality-act-2010-advice-for-schools.The department is also providing over £2 million of funding, between August 2021 and March 2023, to five anti-bullying organisations to support schools to tackle bullying. We have deliberately focused this grant programme on preventing and tackling bullying of pupils with protected characteristics. The training and resources provided cover hate-based bullying, including resources specifically relating to the bullying of Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children.

Pupils: Travellers

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the report by the Traveller Movement entitled Exploring why Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children experience the school to prison pipeline and how it can be interrupted, published in August 2022, whether she will implement that report's recommendations.

Claire Coutinho: The department recognises the issues faced by Gypsy, Roma and Traveller children and young people and how education can make a positive difference. The report contained seven recommendations for the department and the following sets out how we are responding to those recommendations.The report recommended that the clear disaggregation of Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller identities as adopted by the Office for National Statistics for the 2021 Census, should be implemented across the education sector. As the report references Gypsy, Roma and Traveller data was collected in Census 2021 and phase one of the data has now been released: https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/culturalidentity/ethnicity/bulletins/ethnicgroupenglandandwales/census2021. We are currently reviewing the harmonised standard for ethnicity, with any potential question changes being released in 2024.The report recommended that the department must ensure a race equality and diversity policy is made a statutory element of the Public Sector Equality Duty (PSED) for all schools. Already the PSED requires public bodies, including maintained schools and academies, to have due regard to the need to eliminate discrimination and other conduct prohibited by the Equality Act 2010.Schools have specific legal duties to publish information to demonstrate how they are complying with the PSED, and to prepare and publish equality objectives. Schools are also required to publish information relating to those who share a relevant protected characteristic and who are affected by their policies and practices. It is for schools to develop their own strategies for meeting their duties, however, the department has published guidance for schools on how to ensure they comply with their duties under the Equality Act 2010.In regard to education, health and care (EHC) plans, the report recommended that all schools must have the ability and resources to provide assessment of them when requested by a parent or guardian, including annual reviews. Also, local authorities should consider providing base-level EHC plans funding to all schools. The Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND) and Alternative Provision (AP) Green Paper, published in March 2022, sets out our vision to create a more inclusive education system with excellent local mainstream provision which will improve the experience and outcomes for children and young people who need more intensive support. Amongst those consulted was the department’s GRT Stakeholder Group and we are committed to publishing a full response to the consultation through an improvement plan early in 2023.The report also recommended that the department should require all school and academy trusts to establish an On-Site Inclusion Unit. In July 2022 we published updated guidance on Behaviour in Schools and Suspension and Permanent Exclusion statutory guidance. The Behaviour guidance makes clear some schools can choose to have pupil support units (sometimes called ‘in-school units’) which should be used for two main reasons: to provide planned pastoral support for vulnerable pupils and as a last resort measure to support pupils at risk of exclusion.Additionally, the report recommended that expert headteacher panels should be established to provide final assessments for proposed permanent exclusions and the department should develop standardised reporting guidelines for monitoring the use of In-School exclusionary practices, and also develop guidance for best practice and use of in-school exclusionary practices.The updated exclusion guidance is clear that, in all cases, schools should consider initial intervention to address underlying causes of disruptive behaviour which may minimise the need for permanent exclusion. Whilst a permanent exclusion may still be an appropriate sanction, schools should take account of any contributing factors.The statutory process to review school exclusions is clear that governing boards have a role to review the decision of the headteacher to permanently exclude and if the governing board decides to uphold the permanent exclusion, the parents will have the right to an Independent Review Panel.

Childcare

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of extending free childcare.

Claire Coutinho: Improving the cost, choice, and availability of childcare is a priority for this government. The department is already exploring options to help parents access the childcare they need. Further information on the childcare offers available to parents can be found at: https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk.The department has built up a significant early education and childcare offer to parents. In 2010, to support children to develop social skills and prepare them for school, the government extended free early education and care for all three and four-year-olds, regardless of parental income or working status, from 12.5 hours a week to 15 hours a week.In 2013, the department introduced 15 hours of free early education and care for disadvantaged two year-olds, which aims to support improved educational outcomes for the most disadvantaged children who are the least likely to take up formal childcare, but who stand to benefit from it the most.In 2017, the department introduced an additional 15 hours, providing a total of 30 hours of free early education and care for working parents of three and four-year-olds, if they earn the equivalent of 16 hours a week at national minimum or living wage and under £100,000 per year. This can help save working parents up to £6,000 a child per year.Tax-Free Childcare is also available to parents who meet the same income criteria as the 30 hours free childcare entitlement, and can be worth up to £2,000 per year for children aged 0 to 11, or up to £4,000 per year for disabled children aged up to 17.Through the roll out of Universal Credit, eligible working parents are now able to claim back up to 85% of their childcare costs.The government is also investing over £200 million a year in our Holiday Activities and Food (HAF) programme, which all local authorities in England deliver in the Easter, summer and Christmas holidays.

Childcare

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Institute for Public Policy Research report entitled Delivering a Childcare Guarantee, published on 6 December 2022, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of that report's recommendations.

Claire Coutinho: The report “Delivering a Childcare Guarantee” makes several recommendations that cover sustainable funding for childcare and early education, the sufficiency of the number of childcare places on offer to parents, and our investment in the early years workforce. Getting this right is fundamentally important for parents and children, and we are looking at all options to improve the cost, flexibility and availability of childcare, and crucially, outcomes for children.The department has spent over £3.5 billion in each of the past three years on early education entitlements to support families with the cost of childcare. At the Spending Review 2021, we announced additional funding for the early years entitlements of £160 million in 2022/23, £180 million in 2023/24 and £170 million in 2024/25, compared to the 2021/22 financial year. For 2023/24, we are investing an additional £20 million, on top of the additional £180 million already announced, to help support providers at a national level with additional costs associated with the national living wage.The department is not currently planning to extend our free early education entitlements. We remain committed to supporting working parents through a range of childcare offers, including Universal Credit and Tax-Free Childcare, which are available to working parents of children from age 0.The department is supporting parents to access the childcare they need through the ‘right to request’, which enables a parent to request that the school their child attends considers establishing wraparound and/or holiday childcare provision, if they are not already doing so. Schools must respond to these requests and should not refuse them without a reasonable justification. The government is also investing up to £30 million to continue our national school breakfast programme until July 2024, supporting up to 2,500 schools in disadvantaged areas. The programme offers free nutritious breakfasts to children from low-income families, to support their attainment, wellbeing, and readiness to learn.Under Section 6 of the Childcare Act 2006, local authorities are responsible for ensuring that the provision of childcare is sufficient to meet the requirements of parents in their area. The department has regular contact with each local authority in England, and if a local authority raises concerns about sufficiency issues we will, of course, support it with any specific requirements. We are currently seeking to procure a contract that will provide support to local authorities who are seeking to improve their ability to fulfil their childcare sufficiency duties.Finally, we recognise that workforce recruitment and retention are key issues for the early years sector. The majority of the sector is made up of private, voluntary and independent organisations who set their own rates of pay. However, we acknowledge the concerns raised by the sector regarding the perceived impact of salary rates. The department is working with the sector to build our understanding of the workforce situation, and how we might support providers in this area.The government is already providing a package of training, qualifications, expert guidance, and targeted support for the early years sector to focus on the development of the youngest and most disadvantaged children and help to address existing recruitment and retention challenges. We are funding a range of programmes, including additional funding for graduate level specialist training which leads to early years teacher status and an accredited level 3 early years SENCO qualification.Childminders are an important part of the early years workforce and the childcare market more widely, providing flexible, high-quality and affordable childcare that many parents both want and need. We have announced a set of measures to support childminders and boost their numbers. More information about this will be provided in due course.

Arts and Technology: Education

Stephen Morgan: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to encourage more take up of (a) creative and (b) technical subjects (i) at and (ii) above key stage three.

Nick Gibb: Cultural education, including music, arts, and creative subjects are integral to a high quality education for all pupils.Art and design, design and technology, and music are compulsory in all maintained schools from age 5 to age 14. Post 14, all pupils in maintained schools must be offered the opportunity to study at least one subject in the arts. Computing is compulsory for Local Authority maintained schools. Free schools and academies may choose to use the National Curriculum as an exemplar.The Department will continue to concentrate funding of around £115 million per annum in cultural education over the next three years through the music, arts and heritage programmes. This includes music education hubs, the Music and Dance Scheme, and a set of cultural education programmes such as Art&Design Saturday Clubs, the National Youth Dance Company, and the British Film Institute’s Film Academy programme. The Department published the Model Music Curriculum, which supports teachers in delivering high quality music education.To encourage computing education and equip pupils to use computational thinking, the Department launched a National Centre for Computing Education (NCCE), backed by over £80 million of funding. This is to improve the quality of computing teaching through continuous professional development and resources. The Key Stage 3 curriculum resources developed by the NCCE include lessons on mobile app development and on how pupils can develop their creativity using information and communication technology.

Education: East of England

Daniel Zeichner: To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the findings and recommendations on the primary education and skills levelling up missions in the report by the East of England APPG and EELGA entitled Levelling up in the East of England - the East of England's progress towards the Government’s twelve levelling up missions; and if she will make a statement.

Nick Gibb: The Department is determined to improve the quality of education for all children no matter where they live. The Government introduced the Levelling Up White Paper, which sets targets to raise school standards and outcomes for children and give pupils from all backgrounds the opportunity to succeed.The Department is providing significant support to 55 Education Investment Areas (EIA), of which 24 are Priority Education Investment Areas (PEIA). There are three PEIAs in the East of England: Ipswich, Norwich, and Fenland and East Cambridgeshire.Over the next three years, up to £86 million in trust capacity funding and £150 million for extending the Connect the Classroom programme are being prioritised in EIAs. In EIAs, the Department is also offering the Levelling Up premium, worth up to £3,000 tax free, to eligible teachers. In the 24 Priority EIAs, we will offer further investment in addition to the significant support available to all EIAs, to address local needs and drive improvement.The Levelling Up White Paper also sets out a mission that by 2030, the number of people successfully completing high quality skills training will have significantly increased in every area of the UK. In England, this will lead to 200,000 more people successfully completing high quality skills training annually, driven by 80,000 more people completing courses in other areas. The Government is continuing to progress this, underpinned by £3.8 billion funding in further education over this Parliament.

Ministry of Justice

Remand in Custody: Females

Ellie Reeves: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many women have been held in prison on remand in each of the last five years; and of those women, how many were held for (a) six months or less, (b) over six months to 12 months (c) over 12 months to 18 months, (d) over 18 months to 24 months and (e) over 24 months.

Damian Hinds: The number of women in prison on remand in each of the last five years (as of a snapshot at September 30 in each year), by length of time on remand on that snapshot date, is provided in the below table. Increases in the remand population since March 2020 are believed to be associated with restrictions on court activity arising from the COVID pandemic, and more recently with industrial action from barristers. 30/09/201830/09/201930/09/202030/09/202130/09/2022All5495716146206736 months or less492488480465530More than 6 months, up to 12 months45649911698More than 12 months, up to 18 months611232521More than 18 months, up to 24 months*58913More than 24 months*34511Independent judges make the decision whether to remand a defendant based on the risk to public safety and whether they are likely to reoffend, abscond or obstruct the course of justice.Data sources and qualityThe figures in this table have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.Time on remand estimationFor those in the remand prison population this estimation is based on the difference between the date of an individual’s first entry to the prison estate for the current set of [alleged / proven] offences and the date of the data extract [in this case 30 Sep 2022]. This may not accurately reflect ‘time on remand’ for reasons including that the ‘remand spell’ has a ceiling of the date of the extract (i.e. that this isn’t the end of the period of time on remand), and also that it may include time on bail in the community (for example for individuals who are bailed, but then breach bail conditions and are remanded in custody).Disclosure controlAn asterisk (*) has been used to suppress values of two or less. This is to prevent the disclosure of individual information. Further disclosure control may be completed where this alone is not sufficient.Source: Prison NOMISPQ 121085 (Ministry of Justice; Data and Analysis (Directorate))

Prisons: Crimes of Violence

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what assessment he has made of trends in the level of physical violence in prisons in the UK.

Damian Hinds: Please see the published statistics on assaults in prisons, within Safety in Custody Statistics, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/safety-in-custody-statistics.For an assessment of trends in the level of physical violence in prisons in Northern Ireland and Scotland, I would direct the honourable member to the relevant Departments from the devolved administrations.

Family Proceedings

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps his Department is taking to increase the timeliness in public family law cases.

Alex Cunningham: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to prevent the structural delays in the Family Law Courts from affecting children of divorcing parents.

Mike Freer: The Government recognises the impact that delays in the family court can have on children and families, which is why improving timeliness in Public and Private Family Law cases remains a key priority. Steps we are taking include:Maximising sitting days and improving judicial recruitment and retention.Investing £324 million to increase capacity in the civil, family, and tribunal jurisdictions to continue tackling backlogs and improve timeliness.Increasing funding to Cafcass by £8.4 million this financial year.Bringing together key partners from across the family justice system via the Family Justice Board, with a shared approach to scrutinise performance and drive improvement.Supporting the President of the Family Division with a renewed focus on the Public Law Outline as a template for case management with the aim of bringing more cases within 26 weeks.Encouraging separating parents to resolve their issues outside of the court - we will outline further measures to support parents to resolve their issues quickly and amicably in due course.Investing £8.7 million to date in the family mediation voucher scheme. Over 13,500 families have accessed the scheme, with early indications suggesting 65% reach a full or partial agreement outside court, and a further 3% only proceed to court to secure a consent order to finalise their agreement.

Criminal Proceedings

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he will make an estimate of the number of criminal cases that are awaiting trial as of 13 January 2023.

Mike Freer: The number of outstanding cases is published in the monthly HMCTS Management Information (accessible at: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/hmcts-management-information.).

Meters: Pre-payment

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to his contribution of 10 January, Official Report column 422, when he plans to raise concerns with the judiciary about the scrutiny applied to warrants for forcible prepayment meter installations; and if he will make a statement on the outcome of those discussions.

Mike Freer: Further to my response on 10 January 2023, I am in the process of raising the matter with the senior judiciary, and at this stage do not plan on making a statement.

Courts: Wales

Jo Stevens: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what steps he is taking to improve the physical condition of court buildings in Wales.

Mike Freer: During financial years 2021/2022 and 2022/23, 36 individual capital improvement projects have taken place across the court estate in Wales, with a further 11 capital improvement projects currently in progress. Together we estimate these works will represent capital investment of over £18m. This figure excludes any reactive repairs and Business As Usual maintenance that we have carried out across the estate in Wales.The projects include the replacement of six boilers and a roof at Cardiff Crown Court, replacement windows at Merthyr Tydfil Combined Court, installation of LED lighting at Cardiff Magistrates Court, refurbishment of the staff and judicial lift at Cardiff Civil justice Centre and an upgraded building power supply system at Wrexham Magistrates Court.This year an extra £20m is also being spent across England & Wales on additional minor repairs and replacement items, including re-decoration, replacing carpets and deep-cleans as well as replacement of fire doors, ventilation duct cleaning and other health and safety works. Examples of this work in Wales include the redecoration of cell doors and benches at Mold Law Courts, replacement carpet at Swansea Magistrates Court, replacement flooring at Merthyr Combined Court, and painting the external steps at Newport Crown Court.We will continue to work closely with local judiciary and operational colleagues in Wales to identify and address the areas of the highest maintenance priority.

Rape: Courts

Wera Hobhouse: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, if he has made an assessment of the potential merits of including (a) the South West or (b) the Avon and Somerset authority in the specialist rape courts pilot.

Edward Argar: On 16 June 2022, we announced the Specialist Sexual Violence Support in the Crown Court project at three locations: Leeds, Newcastle, and Snaresbrook in London.This project is ongoing and we are still in the process of implementing measures, such as trauma informed training for staff, to improve victim experience at the court stage. We will continue to monitor progress against the two aims before making decisions on further rollout, whilst continuing to work closely with the police, Crown Prosecution Service and judiciary so that learnings from the project contribute to ongoing national Crown Court recovery efforts, and bring swifter justice for rape victims.

Bail: Sexual Offences

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what recent assessment he has made of the adequacy of policies applying to bail conditions for sex offenders awaiting sentencing.

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, what information his Department holds on the number of sex offenders awaiting sentencing who have gained permission to leave the country, as specified in their bail conditions, since 2010.

Edward Argar: The decision to remand an individual in custody or to grant bail is solely a matter for the courts acting in accordance with the law on a case by case basis.Bail can only be refused where there are substantial grounds for believing that the individual would abscond, commit further offences, interfere with witnesses or otherwise obstruct the course of justice. Where the court grants bail, it does so with the proviso that the individual attends court, does not commit another offence while on bail and does not interfere with witnesses or otherwise obstruct the course of justice. The court may also decide to impose certain conditions to help ensure that the individual complies with these requirements and to help mitigate any other identified bail risks. Such conditions may include, but are not limited to, the surrender of passports to prevent the individual from travelling abroad.The court can also impose a Sexual Risk Order where an individual has committed an act of a sexual nature which suggests that they pose a risk of harm to the public in the UK or children or vulnerable adults abroad.The Government is working to ensure the courts have all the information they need to make an informed decision about the risk posed by an individual.Information relating to bail conditions that are imposed by the courts is not centrally recorded in the Court Proceeding Database held by the Ministry of Justice and to obtain it would involve a manual interrogation of court records which would result in a disproportionate cost to the department.On 17 January, the Justice Select Committee published its report entitled "The Role of Adult Custodial Remand in the Criminal Justice System". The report makes recommendations which relate to bail conditions and to the availability of data. The Government will publish its response to the report on 17 March.

Schools: Racial Discrimination

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, how many cases of racial discrimination against schools were taken in Country Courts in (a) 2020, (b) 2021 and (c) 2022.

Mike Freer: The information requested could only be obtained at disproportionate cost. The MOJ does not centrally record information on the grounds for damages claims and as such the information could only be obtained by a manual review of the case files.

Department for International Trade

Department for International Trade: Freedom of Information

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, how many freedom of information requests submitted to her Department are outside the statutory timeframe for a response as of 9 January 2023.

Nigel Huddleston: As at 09 January there were 4 overdue FOI requests awaiting reply to the requester. These are now cleared and there are no outstanding FOIs at present.

Arms Trade: Export Controls

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, what assessment her Department has made in the last twelve months of the adequacy of the UK's arms export controls.

Nigel Huddleston: Export controls are kept under regular review to ensure that they continue to properly address the threats we face, keep pace with new technologies, and adapt to changing circumstances, while providing an efficient service which does not impose an unworkable administrative burden on the defence and security industry. HM Government is satisfied that the Strategic Export Licensing Criteria provides a thorough risk assessment framework for assessing all export licence applications. An export licence will not be granted (or, if extant, it would be revoked) if incompatible with the Criteria.

Arms Trade: Export Controls

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for International Trade, whether she plans to review the UK arms export control regime.

Nigel Huddleston: HM Government is committed to maintaining a robust and transparent export control regime, which will be kept under continuous review.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office

Human Rights

Geraint Davies: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what plans he has to develop a departmental strategy to promote human rights and civic space.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK has a long-standing commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights across the globe. We are committed to being a force for good in the world, with human rights, open societies, democracy, and the international rule of law acting as our guiding lights. We continue to review our policy and guidance in relation to civic space and human rights defenders within the broader strategic framing of open societies and human rights. It is too soon to discuss the outcome of that process but we continue to engage with key stakeholders on these important questions.

Myanmar: Singapore

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with his Singaporean counterpart on the position of Singapore as a transit hub for (a) raw materials and (b) potential weapons components destined for Myanmar.

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he has had recent discussions with his (a) European and (ii) regional counterparts on the supply of components for the manufacture of weapons to Myanmar.

Leo Docherty: The UK has had a comprehensive arms embargo on Myanmar since 2013, which prohibits the supply of dual-use items, including technology and manufacturing equipment, to the Myanmar military. Since the coup in Myanmar, the UK has led global efforts to reduce the flow of weapons to Myanmar through coordinating multilateral statements. On 26 November 2022, in coordination with partners, we released a statement which committed to preventing the flow of arms, dual-use goods and technical assistance reaching the military, which was signed by states who have previously supplied weapons. We have also spearheaded efforts to impose sanctions on arms dealers and the military's own domestic production, in close coordination with the US, EU and Canada. We take a rigorous approach to due diligence in relation to our arms embargo, including enhanced military end-use controls for items destined for the military and security forces. We have also established the Myanmar Witness programme, which monitors weapons exports to Myanmar using open-source intelligence. We will continue to take coordinated action to halt the military's access to arms and lobby countries who sell weapons to the military.

Tigray: Peace Negotiations

Ms Lyn Brown: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what meetings he has had with (a) the African Union, (b) the Ethiopian Government and (c) other officials in the last two months on supporting the monitoring and implementation of the November 2022 Pretoria and Nairobi agreements.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The Foreign Secretary visited Ethiopia on 8 December 2022. He met with Prime Minister Abiy, Deputy Prime Minister Demeke and visited Afar where he saw UK supplied trucks about to deliver aid into Tigray. He welcomed the peace agreement signed between the Ethiopian Government and the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF). He told Prime Minister Abiy that Ethiopia could rely on the UK's full support on its path to recovery and reconciliation so long as the peace process makes progress. Our Ambassador in Addis Ababa has been in regular contact with the Ethiopian Government and the African Union to reinforce this message.

Serbia: Wagner Group

Alicia Kearns: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2023 to Question 119063 on Serbia: Wagner Group, whether his Department has taken recent steps to assess whether the Wagner Group has opened an office in Belgrade.

Leo Docherty: We continue to monitor and assess reports of Wagner Group activity in Serbia, drawing on a range of sources and discussions with Serbian counterparts. On 16 January, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic denied reports that the Wagner Group has a presence in Serbia. The Serbian government has said it will prosecute any Serbian nationals who travel to fight in foreign wars. The UK will continue to raise concerns about Russia's destabilising activity in the region with the Serbian government.

Nigeria: Christianity

Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what representations he has made to his Nigerian counterpart on the persecution of Christians in that country.

Mr Andrew Mitchell: The UK Government is committed to defending freedom of religion or belief for all communities in Nigeria. In July 2022, at the UK's Ministerial Conference on Freedom of Religion or Belief, the Nigerian High Commissioner reiterated his Government's commitment to freedom of religion or belief. I have raised concerns about the effect of insecurity on communities in my engagements with leading Nigerian presidential candidates in December 2022 and January 2023. We will continue to call on the Nigerian Government to assist affected communities and implement long-term solutions.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to his Department’s publication of Government procurement card spending over £500 for July 2022, what the (a) nature and (b) purpose was of the leisure activities for which Puckrup Hall was paid £6,568 on 20 July 2022.

David Rutley: This was for 13 rooms between 25 and 29 July at the Hilton Puckrup Hall for a Department for International Trade Latin America & Caribbean (LATAC) Trade Mission. The event provided an opportunity to promote UK companies to buyers and technical experts from the LATAC region.Expenditure was subject to normal controls.

Torture

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to his Department's Human Rights and Democracy report 2021, for what reason his Department has not continued with the practice of annual reporting of the number of allegations of torture by foreign authorities made by British citizens to his Department.

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how the annual data on the number of allegations of torture by foreign authorities made by British citizens to his Department will be reported to Parliament.

David Rutley: The FCDO remains committed to transparency in line with the Ministerial Code and publishes monthly and annual consolidated consular management data on GOV.UK. Published data includes the number of cases where assistance has been provided to British nationals around the world, including the number of cases where British nationals report allegations of torture and mistreatment overseas. We will also reconsider including information on the number of open allegations of torture and mistreatment made to consular officials by British nationals overseas in future Human Rights and Democracy Reports.

Torture

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many cases were reviewed as part of his Department's annual review of open torture cases in 2022.

Bambos Charalambous: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many of the open torture cases reviewed in the 2022 review related to the abuse of British citizens in the Middle East and North Africa region.

David Rutley: In 2022, as part of the FCDO's internal annual review of torture and mistreatment cases reported to consular staff by British nationals overseas, the FCDO reviewed all 131 torture and mistreatment cases that were open on 31 December 2021. 32 of these were from the Middle East region.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to his Department’s publication of spending over £500 with a Government procurement card in January 2021, what items were purchased from Emma Bridgewater Ltd on 15 and 20 January 2021; and for what purpose those items were purchased by his Department.

David Rutley: These were for gifts provided to members of the UN Security Council and senior UN officials, to support the UK's February 2021 Security Council Presidency. This reflects routine practice by the rotating presidencies of the Security Council to offer small gifts to the senior diplomats of all Security Council members.The exchange of gifts has long been an important part of building relations and diplomacy. Gifts for the UK's Presidencies are usually procured from British brands and businesses, to support the promotion of British products.

European Parliament Members: Lobbying

Andrew Rosindell: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, whether he plans to make a representation to the President of the European Commission regarding the arrests of former and existing Members of the European Parliament in relation to alleged lobbying activity; and if he will make a statement.

Leo Docherty: I refer the Rt. Honourable member to my reply to his question 110608 of 19 December. The Government continues to monitor developments in the European Parliament and other EU institutions.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to his Department’s publication of spending over £500 with a Government procurement card, how many members of staff received training from Be Mindfully on (a) 8 March 2021, (b) 9 February 2022; (c) 15 March 2022 and (d) 22 August 2022; and for what purpose that training was required.

David Rutley: This represents professional development courses for three staff members at the British Consulate in New York. Expenditure was subject to normal FCDO controls and an appropriate use of public money.

Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, with reference to his Department’s publication of spending over £500 with a Government procurement card in March 2021, for what catering supplies was Parsley in Time paid a total of £3,979.04 on 22 and 25 March 2021; and for what purpose those supplies were used.

David Rutley: The two transactions were to purchase official equipment for diplomatic residences in Buenos Aires. The purpose was to allow continuing high quality production of food for official functions at the Ambassador's residence and to furnish two diplomatic residences for staff and visitors. This reduces the spend on extended hotel stays.Government Procurement Cards provide an efficient route to enable key staff to procure goods and services, necessary to the promotion of British interests overseas and the maintenance of our embassies and high commissions. All purchases are subject to authorisation by managers and audit checks. Local budgets are scrutinised for waste, and fraud is monitored by our audit teams to ensure best value to the tax payer.

Pakistan: Diplomatic Service

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, how many UK-based staff from his Department have been deployed to the (a) High Commission and (b) relevant consulates in Pakistan in each year since 2010.

David Rutley: The total number of FCDO UK Based staff at the Embassy and Consulate in Pakistan are:-YearBanded headcount201490-992015100-119201690-99201780-89201890-99201980-89202070-79202160-69202250-59The figures also do not include FCDO Country-Based Staff in our overseas Missions, who are essential to the delivery of FCDO objectives.Total headcount is FCDO UK Based staff within requested locations. Data from legacy departments has been aggregated for pre FCO/DFID merger years, as such it is not completely comparable.Total headcount is FCDO UK Based staff within requested locations. Data from legacy departments has been aggregated for pre FCO/DFID merger years.

Ministry of Defence

Indo-Pacific Region

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when the Littoral Response Group in the Indo Pacific will be fully operational.

James Heappey: A Littoral Response Group will deploy to the Indo-Pacific by the end of 2023. It will build to full operational capability, alongside the wider Commando Force programme, throughout the remainder of the decade.

F-35 Aircraft

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many fully operational F-35s the RAF has.

James Heappey: The Lightning Force has received 30 fully operational F-35B Lightning aircraft to date, one of which was lost in an aircraft incident in November 2021.

Air Force: Training

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, for what reason the Next Generation Operational Training programme has been delayed.

Alex Chalk: Next Generation Operational Training (NGOT) refers to a portfolio of projects: Gladiator (a secure, distributed synthetic collective training network); Next Generation Red Air (including an Interim Red Air Aggressor Training Service); Next Generation Electronic Warfare Threats; Future Air Combat Manoeuvring Instrumentation System; Collective Training Exercise Control facility and systems; and Live, Virtual and Constructive connectivity.Gladiator was approved in 2019 but has suffered delays due to COVID19 restrictions and technical challenges. The remainder of the programme is progressing through the MOD's investment approvals process. Timeframes for delivery remain to be determined, but work continues to deliver NGOT, including the release of the early market engagement 'NGOT pre-procurement notice' on 30 November 2021.

AWACS

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, when the three E-7A Wedgetail will be fully operational.

Alex Chalk: Full Operating Capability for Wedgetail, will be confirmed when the Full Business Case is finalised in mid-2023.

Team Resolute: Contracts

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January 2023 to Question 118854 on Team Resolute: Contracts, whether his Department plans to correct the evidence given to the Defence Committee by Vice-Admiral Paul Marshall CBE on the notification date.

Alex Chalk: Team Resolute was advised on 10 November 2022 of the Department's intention to appoint it preferred bidder. As stated by Vice-Admiral Marshall, Team Resolute was allowed the period of the weekend of 12-13 November 2022 to agree to the terms and conditions attached to preferred bidder status and, having accepted the conditions, was formally notified of its appointment as preferred bidder on 15 November 2022.

Army: Military Bases

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many Army barracks have been without heating or hot water for more than 24 hours since 1 January 2022.

Alex Chalk: Data is held on issues reported with heating and hot water within Army Barracks, however this is not held centrally or in the format requested and can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

Ministry of Defence: Land

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what steps he is taking to ensure transparency and scrutiny of (a) the issue of licenses for trail hunting and (b) other non-military uses of land owned by his Department..

Alex Chalk: All licences issued for non-military use of the defence estate, including trail hunting, are drawn up using a template which has been agreed by legal advisors and which is then adapted for the specific circumstances associated with the activity. Any requests for non-military activities are reviewed by the Head of Establishment for the site involved before any licence is issued. Trail Hunt licences are reviewed and renewed annually, and any refinements are agreed with legal advisors.

Ministry of Defence: Procurement

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, with reference to tender_339768/1162673 entitled Procurement of Mannequins for Vehicle Noise Characterisation and Safe System of Work, published on 4 January 2023, if he will provide further information on how his Department plans to use the mannequins purchased.

Alex Chalk: The mannequins will be used during trials of UK Armoured Fighting Vehicles to collect noise data, which will then be used to determine and optimise the performance of communications headsets.

Ajax Vehicles

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what is the spend to date of the AJAX programme.

Alex Chalk: As part of the wider Armoured Cavalry Programme £3.4 billion has been paid to date, of which £3.167 billion has been paid to General Dynamics as part of the firm price contract. The other payments cover Cannon Contracts with CTAI, Bowman Equipment Purchases/Connectivity Assurance Testing (General Dynamics Mission Systems) and infrastructure.

National Security: Cybersecurity

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the annual expenditure by (a) his Department and (b) the National Cyber Security Centre is on the Joint Crypt Key Programme.

Alex Chalk: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer given by my predecessor (Alec Shelbrooke) on 22 September 2022 to Question 49570, which states that the Joint Crypt Key Programme (JCKP) has a whole life cost of £2.6billion over 19 years (financial year (FY)2016-17 to FY2035-36). More detailed information on annual JCKP expenditure is being withheld as its disclosure would, or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces. National Security: Cybersecurity (docx, 18.3KB)

National Security: Cybersecurity

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the Joint Crypt Key Programme has been reset.

Alex Chalk: There has been no reset of the Joint Crypt Key Programme.

Armed Forces: Housing

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, pursuant to the Answer of 5 December to Question 96568 on Armed Forces: Housing, what was the (a) determined cause, (b) location and (c) injury to persons caused by those fires.

Alex Chalk: The information requested is provided in the following table. YearNo of IncidentsCause of FireLocationNo of persons injured20171Not KnownSennelager020171Cooking - Unattended cookingWattisham020171UnknownFalklands020171Fault in electrical supplyBicester020171Cooking - Ignition of oil/fatShawbury020171Cooking - Unattended cookingCranwell120171Fault in equipment or applianceAldergrove020171OverheatingFalklands020171OverheatingHalton020171CandleMiddle Wallop020171Cooking - Ignition of oil/fatDhekelia020171Fault in equipment or applianceAkrotiri020171Fault in electrical supplyCosford020171UnknownMiddle Wallop020171Failure of an electric component within applianceHenlow020171UnknownSt. Athan02017 Total16  12018*27---2018 Total*27   20191Fault in equipment or applianceAldergrove020191Cooking - Ignition of oil/fatBicester020191Failure of an electric component within applianceBrize Norton020191Cooking - Unattended cookingEpiskopi020191UnknownEpiskopi020191Cooking - Unattended cookingEpiskopi020191Fault in equipment or applianceFaslane020191Cooking - Unattended cookingHigh Wycombe020191Fault in equipment or applianceLeuchars020191Deliberate ignitionMarham020191Cooking - Ignition of oil/fatMarham020191Failure of an electric component within applianceSennelager020191Cooking - Unattended cookingSennelager020191OtherTroodos02019 TOTAL14  020200---20201Cooking - Unattended cookingMarham020201CandleFaslane120201OverheatingDonnington020201Fault in electrical supplyShawbury02020 TOTAL4  120211Failure of an electric component within applianceBrize Norton020211Cooking - Unattended cookingRAF High Wycombe020211Cooking - Unattended cookingCranwell020211Cooking - Unattended cookingFylingdales020211OverheatingRAF High Wycombe020211Careless disposal of smoking materialsCosford020211UnknownBoulmer020211Negligent use of equipment or appliance (heat source)Aldergrove020211Fault in equipment or applianceFalklands STR020211Fault in equipment or applianceSpadeadam02021 TOTAL10  02022 (1 Jan to 31 Oct)1Cooking - Unattended cookingBicester02022 (1 Jan to 31 Oct)1Other - electrical faultCoulport02022 (1 Jan to 31 Oct)1Cooking - Ignition of oil/fatDonnington02022 (1 Jan to 31 Oct)1UnknownCuldrose02022 (1 Jan to 31 Oct)1Accumulation of flammable materialFaslane02022 (1 Jan to 31 Oct)1Fault in equipment or applianceFaslane02022 (1 Jan to 31 Oct)1Cooking - Unattended cookingWaddington02022 (1 Jan to 31 Oct)1UnknownWattisham02022 (1 Jan to 31 Oct)1OverheatingBenson02022 (1 Jan to 31 Oct)1Combustible articles too close to heat source or fire (vice versa)Brize Norton02022 (1 Jan to 31 Oct)10  2GRAND TOTAL (1 Jan 17 to 31 Oct 22)81  3* IT Technical issues have prevented definitive data being readily available for the year 2018

Armed Forces: Housing

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many maintenance issues in Service Family Accommodation classed by Pinnacle Group as routine issues reported to the National Service Centre were attended by an engineer from either Amey or VIVO within twelve working days.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many maintenance issues in Service Family Accommodation classed by Pinnacle Group as Urgent issues reported to the National Service Centre were attended by an engineer from either Amey or VIVO within 48 hours.

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many maintenance issues in Service Family Accommodation classed by Pinnacle Group as Emergency issues reported to the National Service Centre were attended by an engineer from either Amey or VIVO within two hours.

Alex Chalk: In line with the Future Defence Infrastructure Services (FDIS) Accommodation contracts, comprehensive Key Performance Indicator (KPI) statistics are not published for the initial six-month bedding-in period as there is insufficient quality assured data.KPI data will be available for Q3 (October - December) from 15 January 2023.I will write to the right hon. Member in due course and place a copy of my response in the Library of the House.

Defence Infrastructure Organisation: Hunting

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has had correspondence with the Countryside Alliance on the licensing of trail hunting on land owned by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.

Alex Chalk: There has been no correspondence between the department and the Countryside Alliance on the licensing of trail hunting on Ministry of Defence land.

Defence Infrastructure Organisation: Hunting

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether he has had correspondence with the British Hounds Sports Association on the licensing of trail hunting on land owned by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.

Alex Chalk: There has been no correspondence between the department and the British Hounds Sports Association on the licensing of trail hunting on Ministry of Defence land.

Defence Infrastructure Organisation: Hunting

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether his Department has made an assessment of potential security concerns on the agreements in place for the licensing of trail hunting on land owned by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation.

Alex Chalk: No specific assessment of security concerns on the agreements in place for the licensing of Trail Hunting has been made.Any approved fixtures booked under the licence will take into account any specific security matters.

Challenger Tanks

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many deployable Challenger 2 tanks the UK has in its inventory.

Alex Chalk: I refer the right hon. Member to the answer I gave on 12 January 2023 to Question 118814 to the right hon. Member for Wentworth and Deane (Mr John Healey).Challenger Tanks (docx, 21.6KB)

Ukraine: Challenger Tanks

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what estimate he has made of the cost to the public purse of reestablishing the (a) supply and (b) logistics chain for the Challenger 2 tank in order for these tanks to be passed on to the Ukrainian military.

Alex Chalk: The granting in kind of a Squadron of Challenger 2 to Ukraine provides an important increase in Ukraine’s capabilities and will help to accelerate Ukrainian success on the battlefield. This granting will not require the opening of any production lines and support will be provided from current Defence stockpiles.

Artillery: Procurement

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what progress his Department has made on its Mobile Fires Platform programme.

Alex Chalk: The Mobile Fires Platform project is currently in the latter stages of the Concept Phase and has conducted significant operational analysis and market engagement to identify and assess viable investment options against the endorsed Army/Ministry of Defence requirement.

National Security: Cybersecurity

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how much his Department paid to external consultants for the Joint Crypt Key Programme in each year since 2016.

Alex Chalk: The Joint Crypt Key Programme is Ministry of Defence-sponsored and delivered jointly with the National Cyber Security Centre. The information requested is being withheld as its disclosure would, or would be likely to prejudice the capability, effectiveness or security of the Armed Forces.

National Security: Cybersecurity

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what the delivery date is for the Joint Crypt Key Programme.

Alex Chalk: The Joint Crypt Key Programme is delivering incrementally, and in 2022 delivered modernised End Crypto Devices to the Navy, with new sovereign communications modes and improved cryptographic interoperability standards for future crypt devices. It is presently upgrading the military cryptographic key management infrastructure. The programme will continue to sustain and modernise Defence’s high grade crypt key capabilities, with a clear programme of annual capability delivery milestones, and is expected to achieve Full Operating Capability in 2035.

National Security: Cybersecurity

John Healey: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many programme leads for the Joint Crypt Key Programme there have been in the (a) Ministry of Defence and (b) National Cyber Security Centre since 2016.

Alex Chalk: The Joint Crypt Key Programme is sponsored by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), with an MOD Senior Responsible Owner. Programme delivery is jointly managed by the MOD and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). The most senior programme leadership position with equivalents in both MOD and NCSC is Programme Director. There have been six MOD Programme Directors since 2016. Information relating to NCSC contracts and resourcing is being withheld for the purpose of safeguarding national security.

Ministry of Defence: Holiday Leave

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, how many of his Department's civil servants sold annual leave in the last financial year.

Dr Andrew Murrison: In December 2022, the Ministry of Defence (MOD) announced a new Annual Leave Payment Scheme. Under the terms of the Scheme, it has been exceptionally agreed that MOD civil servants with unused annual leave balances, after taking adequate rest and recuperation (statutory annual leave; 20 days annual leave plus Public Holidays (pro-rata for non-standard workers)), can submit a single request for the MOD to buy back up to a maximum of five contractual days annual leave (pro-rata for non-standard workers). This buy back facility is a one-off scheme which is available from 14 December 2022 until 28 February 2023.The Annual Leave Payment Scheme did not exist in Financial Year 2021-22. Applications for the Scheme in Financial Year 2022-23 are being processed by Defence Business Services and no payments have yet been made.

Ukraine: Tanks

Mr Kevan Jones: To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what recent discussions he has had with his international partners on the donation of Main Battle Tanks to Ukraine.

James Heappey: We have engaged international partners on this subject through a coordinated military and diplomatic effort over recent weeks, and this work continues.The Defence Secretary is hosting a meeting of partners with his Estonian counterpart on 19 January to push forward international donations, including main battle tanks. The provision of tanks is also expected to be discussed at the forthcoming meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein Air Base on 20 January.

Department for Work and Pensions

Unemployment

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department's review of workforce participation will make an assessment of the potential impact of (a) different types of pensions systems and (b) the furlough scheme on economic inactivity.

Guy Opperman: The Prime Minister has tasked the Secretary of State to look in detail at the issue of workforce participation. We will be looking to identify and understand the barriers preventing people from joining the workforce and/or resulting in people leaving the workforce early. The work will focus on four cohorts: early retirees, those with a disability or health condition, unpaid carers, and students. a) DWP are working with HMT to consider if there are potential links between pensions and economic activity. b) DWP has worked with a range of government departments to understand the labour market impact of the furlough scheme. The available evidence on the labour impact of the furlough scheme will be reviewed where relevant to the four cohorts being focused on.

Unemployment

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee report entitled Where have all the workers gone, published on 20 December 2022, whether his Department's review of issues holding back workforce participation, as announced in the Autumn Statement on 17 November 2022, plans to cover (a) whether sectors of the workforce will need to adapt by re-organising the way they produce their output, for example by replacing labour with automation or changes to terms and conditions, (b) in instances where those sectors are unable to adapt, whether they will become smaller than they would have been and (c) whether a Government policy response is necessary on these matters.

Guy Opperman: The government is clear that increasing labour supply is a key priority. We will identify and understand the barriers preventing people from joining the workforce and/or resulting in people leaving the workforce early and will be focussing on four cohorts: early retirees, disabled people and people with health conditions, unpaid carers, and students. How firms adapt to a changing labour market will depend on their type of business, for example, in the case of manufacturing we want more manufacturers to adopt technology that will improve productivity and stimulate growth, including robotics and automation and we have programmes that support them to do this. This includes the Made Smarter programme which has committed almost £200m in funding to large manufacturers and SMEs to develop new technology solutions and adopt existing tech, including robotics and autonomous systems. We will work with other government departments and engage with a wide network of stakeholders, including economists, academics, charities, industry/business representatives and research organisations, to gather insight and develop new ideas to tackle the issue.

Older Workers

Richard Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of the proportion of people between ages 50 and retirement age who were employed in 2019.

Richard Graham: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will make an estimate of employment rate for people aged between 50 and retirement age.

Guy Opperman: Official Statistics are published annually on the economic labour market status of individuals aged 50 and over: Economic labour market status of individuals aged 50 and over - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).

Social Security Benefits: Disqualification

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to stop any benefits sanctions being applied to people living in poverty.

Guy Opperman: For claimants who cannot meet their most immediate and essential needs as a result of a sanction, hardship support is available. A claimant is only sanctioned when they fail to comply with agreed requirements without good reason. Conditionality has long been an essential part of employment support and claimants have to fulfil set requirements, which boost their chances of moving into employment or increasing their hours, in order to receive their benefit Many of our claimants are also entitled to other elements in UC, such as housing, child or disability elements. If a sanction is applied, claimants continue to receive these parts of the award.

Employment

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department's review on workforce participation will include an understanding of the potential effect of (a) NHS waiting lists and (b) Long Covid on labour supply.

Guy Opperman: The review will identify and understand the barriers preventing people from joining the workforce and/or resulting in people leaving the workforce early. People with health conditions are a key focus of the review. This review will build on the government’s existing package of support to help people with health conditions to start, stay and succeed in work.

Older Workers

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department's review on workforce participation will consider measures that could be taken by the (a) Government and (b) employers to encourage future age cohorts to remain in the workforce.

Guy Opperman: The government is clear that increasing labour supply is a key priority. The department is considering a wide range of factors in the review on workforce participation, we will build on the governments existing package of support to do this.

Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentres: Staff

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of increases in the cost of living on staff working in (a) his Department and (b) Job Centres; and whether he is taking steps with Cabinet colleagues to increase remuneration for those staff.

Mims Davies: DWP recognises the difficulties that many colleagues are facing at present. DWP is bound by the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance that sets out limits on the pay uplifts DWP is able to implement. DWP has implemented the 2022 DWP pay award in July and we utilized the maximum permitted under the guidance. DWP is unable to make further changes to individual’s base pay outside of the annual pay award. DWP will review the reward offer to all staff within the Civil Service Pay Remit Guidance when this is made available for 2023/24. The Department continues to provide wellbeing support to staff who may be impacted by cost of living increases, including through its employee assistance programme and, where appropriate, signposting colleagues to additional financial support.

Universal Credit

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the paper entitled Completing the move to Universal Credit: Learning from the Discovery Phase, published by his Department on 10 January 2023, whether his Department has taken steps to support legacy benefit claimants who did not make a claim for Universal Credit within three months of their migration notice and had their existing entitlement terminated without a replacement income being in place.

Guy Opperman: The Department has provided significant support to claimants as part of the Discovery Phase of the Universal Credit Programme.For the Discovery cohorts, claimants were granted an automatic one-month extension to their deadline date. If a claimant did not claim by their extended deadline, they were notified that their current benefit(s) would be terminated unless they had significant support needs requiring a further extension.To encourage and support claimants to claim Universal Credit, the Department sent text messages and phone calls during the one-month extension period. Where appropriate, the Department provided enhanced support, including home visits, to engage claimants face-to-face.For those claimants who require significant support, the Department holds case conferences with local Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders who provide local expertise, working with different organisations to take a multi-agency approach to supporting our most vulnerable claimants.For claimants who have their benefits terminated, if they then make a claim to UC within one month of their benefit(s) being terminated, their claim is then backdated to their deadline date and they will still receive Transitional Protection where entitled.

Department for Work and Pensions: Written Questions

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named-day written questions their Department answered on time in 2022.

Mims Davies: The latest official statistics produced by the Table Office are as follows and show that DWP answered the following Parliamentary Questions on time: Jan 2022 – Apr 2022:Named Day PQs – 83%Ordinary Written PQs – 86.9% May 2022 – Jul 2022:Named Day PQs – 90.8%Ordinary Written PQs – 93.5% Statistics for September to the December recess are currently being compiled.

Department for Work and Pensions: Complaints

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answers of 22 November 2022 to Question 86473 and of 2 December 2022 to Question 101705 on Department for Work and Pensions: Complaints, if he will set a maximum target for the length of time taken to assign an Independent Case Examiner complaint to an investigator.

Mims Davies: There is no service standard for the period of time a complaint is awaiting allocation to an investigator. This is because ICE has no control over the number of complaints it receives, which can vary significantly from month to month and year to year. Other factors which affect the rate of allocation of complaints are the complexity of the individual complaint to be investigated, the evidence required to do that, the available investigative resource and the volume of work on hand. The ICE office is, nevertheless, continuously reviewing its processes and operating model to improve productivity.

Department for Work and Pensions: Standards

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what progress his Department has made on delivering its Excellence Plan since its introduction; what work his Department has undertaken to deliver that plan; and what outcomes have been achieved to date.

Mims Davies: In 2019 the Department made a bid, through the Spending Review process, for additional funding in the financial year 20/21 to implement the Excellence Plan. This funding was to improve support for vulnerable customers and their interactions with the Department. In March 2020, prior to the beginning of the 20/21 financial year, and like many other organisations, we had to reprioritise our operations due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, the following work has been undertaken in the time since. We have introduced more than 30 Advanced Customer Support Senior Leaders (ACSSLs) who have now been appointed across Great Britain. The Department has also created central teams in the Customer Experience Directorate to focus on strategically supporting our most vulnerable customers. In August 2020 the Internal Process Review Group was established to increase oversight of Internal Process Reviews at a more senior level. The Serious Case Panel was set up in late 2019 to consider systemic themes and issues that have arisen from serious cases.

Older Workers: Early Retirement

Alison McGovern: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, whether his Department's review on workforce participation will assess whether future cohorts of older workers will retire earlier in greater numbers.

Guy Opperman: The review will identify and understand the barriers preventing people from joining the workforce and/or resulting in people leaving the workforce early. Early retirees are a key focus of the review. This review will build on the government’s existing package of support to help older workers to start, stay and succeed in work.

Department for Work and Pensions: Complaints

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the report entitled Independent Case Examiner for the Department for Work and Pensions: annual report 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022, published on 16 December 2022, if he will make an assessment of the reasons for which there was an increase in the number of complaints accepted for examination received by the Independent Case Examiner in 2021-22.

Mims Davies: The ICE report is retrospective and many of the cases referenced date back to the pandemic or even earlier, this was a challenging time for DWP and we expect volumes to decrease now the service has stabilised. We continue to value ICE and we learn from the cases, helping us to put things right. The report reflects the experience of a small proportion of DWP customers as the vast majority of complaints are handled by DWP, with only a small proportion escalating to the Independent Case Examiner who provide an independent avenue for customers. Overall complaints to DWP remain significantly lower than pre-pandemic. Complaints equate to less than 1% of the department’s caseload.

Department for Work and Pensions: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution

Emily Thornberry: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 19 December 2022 to Question 110642 on Department for Work and Pensions: Electronic Purchasing Card Solution, what accounts for the difference between the cost of the two British Airways business class flights paid for using a government procurement card on 6 August 2021; and which of those costs relates to the flight purchased for his predecessor.

Mims Davies: A Business Class flight for the then Secretary of State to attend the Paralympic Games 2021, as part of the official delegation, was purchased for £6,177.37. We do not hold the specific information as to why the two tickets were different prices. Prices, even on the same flight, can vary according to the pricing policy of the airline and the time of booking.

Local Housing Allowance: Uprating

Lisa Nandy: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if his Department will make an estimate of the cost of uprating Local Housing Allowance rates to the 30th percentile of market rents across England and place that estimate in the Library.

Mims Davies: In April 2020 the Government boosted investment in the Local Housing Allowance by nearly £1 billion and rates have been maintained at their increased level in 2021/22 and 2022/23. The latest estimated cost of increasing LHA rates to the 30th percentile, made in preparations for Autumn Budget, was up to £700m for the financial year 2023-24. This is based on the new LHA rates coming into effect in April 2023. The estimate for the policy covered Great Britain as the LHA applies across Great Britain. This estimate was produced before the Autumn Statement was finalised and therefore is not on the same basis as the policy costings published alongside the statement. The costing has not been quality assured to the standard of an agreed policy and is based on assumptions that were still being developed at the time.

Personal Independence Payment

Vicky Foxcroft: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to his Department's PIP Assessment Guide, updated on 21 July 2022, whether his Department is taking steps to support people claiming a Personal Independence Payment who require additional support under the guidance.

Tom Pursglove: We understand that some claimants may not be able to engage effectively with the Personal Independence Payment (PIP) claims process due to reduced mental capacity or insight – for example, they may not understand the consequences of not returning a claim form and not have a personal acting body (PAB) to help them. Claimants identified as requiring additional support (AS) during the gathering of initial claim information have an AS marker added to their claim, and elements of the PIP claims process have been adapted to provide further support for this group. If difficulties are identified later in the claimant journey, an AS marker can be added at any point. The PIP Assessment Guide is guidance for health professionals carrying out assessments and includes a section (1.12) on identifying claimants who require AS to engage with the PIP application process.

Poverty: Mental Health and Suicide

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to assess the potential impact of poverty on (a) the mental health of and (b) suicide rates in people living in poverty.

Mims Davies: The link between poverty and mental health is well-established in academic research literature. Data published by OHID shows that people living in the most deprived areas of England have a higher risk of suicide than those living in the least deprived areas. The Department hasn’t specifically assessed or commissioned further research on this issue. There is clear evidence about the important role that work can play in lifting people out of poverty and in improving health and wellbeing for people with health conditions, including mental health. That is why we have undertaken a range of activities to understand how best to support people with mental health conditions find and retain work, for example our Employment Advisors in Improving Access to Psychological Therapies initiative.Last year the Department for Health and Social Care launched a call for evidence on what can be done across government in the longer term to support mental health, mental wellbeing and prevent suicide, which closed on 7 July 2022. The call for evidence recognises that people can be in crisis because of a complex combination of mental ill-health and social factors, including financial insecurity. DHSC are learning from the contributions to the call for evidence and from the evaluation of the Better Mental Health Fund, which offered funding to some of the most deprived local authority areas in England to improve mental health and mental wellbeing in local communities – this included funding services to support people facing financial insecurity. insecurity.The call for evidence and Better Mental Health Fund evaluation are shaping our understanding of what works, and where we need to go further. The Treasury’s Breathing Space programme aims to directly address poor mental health caused by financial hardship, targeting support to those with debt problems. DHSC are investing an additional £2.3billion a year into mental health services by 2023/24, which will by then enable an extra two million people to be treated by NHS mental health servicesThis year Government will spend over £245bn through the welfare system, including around £66 billion on supporting disabled people and people with health conditions in Great Britain. All benefit rates and State Pensions will increase in line with the Consumer Prices Index for the year to September 2022. This will mean that, subject to parliamentary approval, they will increase by 10.1% in April. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions the benefit cap will also be increased by 10.1% subject to parliamentary approval.

Meters: Pre-payment

Rachael Maskell: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the Citizens Advice report entitled Kept in the dark: The urgent need for action on prepayment meters, published in January 2023, if he will make an assessment of the implications for his policies of the sections of that report on people who receive (a) a pension and (b) social security payments.

Mims Davies: There are strict Ofgem rules in place to protect prepayment meter customers. Installing prepayment meters without consent to recover debt must be a last resort and whenever suppliers install a prepayment meter, they must verify that it is safe and reasonably practicable to do so. Ofgem has recently conducted a Market Compliance Review assessing how suppliers support customers in vulnerable situations, including assessing suppliers’ processes for installing prepayment meters. To drive improvements, Ofgem has started compliance engagement with suppliers and required them to take action to address the weaknesses that have been identified. We expect suppliers to fully comply with their obligations and welcome the steps Ofgem is taking The Government's Energy Price Guarantee will save a typical British household around £900 this winter, based on what energy prices would have been under the current price cap - reducing bills by roughly a third. We are also providing a £400 discount on energy bills for all domestic energy users over this winter. Households with smart prepayment meters will get the discount applied to their account and those with traditional prepayment meters, that are topped-up via a key or card, have been sent vouchers. All benefit rates and State Pensions will increase in line with the Consumer Prices Index for the year to September 2022. This will mean that, subject to parliamentary approval, they will increase by 10.1% in April. In order to increase the number of households who can benefit from these uprating decisions the benefit cap will also be increased by 10.1% subject to parliamentary approval. In addition, for 2023/24, households on eligible means-tested benefits will get up to £900 in Cost of Living Payments. This will be split into three payments of around £300 each across the 2023/24 financial year. A separate £300 payment will be made to over eight million pensioner households on top of their Winter Fuel Payments and individuals in receipt of eligible disability benefits will receive a £150 payment. Further to this, the amended Energy Price Guarantee will save the average UK household £500 in 2023/24.

Paraquat: Exports

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, which countries have given consent for the import of paraquat from the UK.

Mims Davies: The Health and Safety Executive’s data on exports under the Great Britain Prior Informed Consent Regulation, collected annually since 2020, shows that the following countries have given consent to the import of paraquat from Great Britain: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, European Union, Guatemala, India, Mexico, Singapore, South Africa and the United States.

Paraquat: Exports

Ruth Cadbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how much paraquat the Health and Safety Executive recorded as exported from the UK in (a) 2019, (b) 2020 and (c) 2021.

Mims Davies: Following the United Kingdom’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU) on 31 January 2020, the Health and Safety Executive (HSE) no longer has access to data to give a UK specific figure for the export of paraquat in 2019. However, the European Chemicals Agency has published EU data for 2019 showing an aggregated export volume for paraquat and carbon tetrachloride, which is available here: Annual reporting on PIC exports and imports - ECHA (europa.eu). HSE’s data, collected annually since 2020, shows that exports of paraquat from Great Britain (GB) totalled 10,158 tonnes in 2020 and 10,562 tonnes in 2021.

Means Tested Benefits

Dave Doogan: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, if he will take steps to increase capital limits for means-tested benefits for working-age people in line with inflation.

Guy Opperman: We have no plans to change the capital limits for means-tested benefits.

Personal Independence Payment

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce waiting times for Personal Independent Payments for terminally ill applicants.

Tom Pursglove: We are committed to ensuring that people can access financial support through Personal Independence Payment (PIP) in a timely manner. Reducing customer journey times for PIP claimants is a priority for the department and we are working constantly to make improvements to our service. The clearance times for claims to PIP under the special rules for end of life (SREL) are published quarterly and can be found from the PIP Statistics page available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/personal-independence-payment-statistics. The clearance time for new claims under SREL has consistently been at 3 working days since July 2021.

Personal Independence Payment

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what proportion of Personal Independence Payment applications were processed within his Department's service standard of 12 weeks in (a) 2019-2020, (b) 2020-21 and (c) 2021-22.

Tom Pursglove: As referenced in the response of 19 July 2022, UIN 34999, there is no target for clearance times to Personal Independence Payment (PIP). Clearance times for claims to PIP are published quarterly and can be found from the PIP Statistics page available on GOV.UK: https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/personal-independence-payment-statistics.

Employment Schemes

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, pursuant to the Answer of 16 January 2023 to Question 121079 on Employment Schemes, from which sources participants in the Local Supported Employment programme were referred to that programme.

Guy Opperman: The Local Supported Employment (LSE) programme is a voluntary programme supporting people with learning disabilities and/or autism into employment through intensive one-to-one support. For the current LSE programme, participants are identified and referred to the programme through adult social care services within Local Authorities. During the referral process, eligibility is confirmed by Jobcentre Plus to ensure participants are not already receiving support through other provision.

Access to Work Programme: Standards

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what steps his Department is taking to reduce Access to Work waiting times.

Tom Pursglove: Access to Work has received a significant increase in applications over the last year and have recruited new staff to meet the increased demand and reduce the time it takes to make decisions. Customers making new applications where they are starting work within the next 4 weeks, or have a grant coming to an end that requires renewal, are prioritised to ensure customers are able to enter and remain in the labour market. We are also transforming the Access to Work service through increased digitalisation, that will make the service more efficient, will make the application process easier, and improve the time taken from application through to decision.

Jobcentres

Jonathan Ashworth: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, what data his Department collects on the qualifications held by those accessing Jobcentre services.

Guy Opperman: Our Work Coaches engage with claimants on the basis of their individual needs to provide advice on finding a job or to increase their earnings, including help with retraining or skills advice, job applications and access to new vacancies. As part of this they may discuss any qualifications held by the claimant, along with skills, previous training and work history to determine whether the claimant has any potential skills gaps in relation to their job goals or to help them progress into better-paid work. This information is not collated centrally.

Universal Credit: Work Capability Assessment

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit recipients had (a) Limited Capability for Work and (b) Limited Capability for Work-related Activity in each month since May 2016.

Ms Karen Buck: To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, how many Universal Credit recipients had (a) Limited Capability for Work and (b) Limited Capability for Work-related Activity in each month since May 2016.

Tom Pursglove: The table shows the number of Universal Credit (UC) claimants classified as having Limited Capability for Work (LCW), and those classified as having Limited Capability for Work Related Activity (LCWRA) across Great Britain on the second Thursday of each month from April 2019. The second Thursday of the month is used in the creation of our UC caseload information. Prior to April 2019, some UC claims were recorded on an interim operational system called UC Live Service (UCLS). Figures for UCLS Health claimants are not currently collated and to develop that information would incur disproportionate cost. These figures are rounded to the nearest 10 and produced using internal MI, are not quality assured to Official Statistics standards, and may be subject to revision.   LIMITED CAPABILITY FOR WORKLIMITED CAPABILITY FOR WORK RELATED ACTIVITIESApr-1959,010146,960May-1963,520157,010Jun-1969,520172,770Jul-1975,850186,610Aug-1981,240202,910Sep-1986,480231,250Oct-1989,600247,570Nov-1991,410262,400Dec-1992,940288,750Jan-2094,180303,710Feb-20114,580332,250Mar-20125,780363,350Apr-20143,800381,840May-20146,640392,710Jun-20147,540402,390Jul-20147,670411,820Aug-20146,960426,340Sep-20139,260438,880Oct-20139,230454,100Nov-20140,780476,790Dec-20146,940490,880Jan-21153,100512,890Feb-21157,270529,760Mar-21162,350549,790Apr-21167,540571,950May-21172,930596,960Jun-21177,390618,750Jul-21180,820637,230Aug-21187,290660,670Sep-21191,590676,860Oct-21198,540703,950Nov-21203,050723,170Dec-21207,900743,720Jan-22212,780765,430Feb-22219,010789,470Mar-22224,070814,420Apr-22231,200846,370May-22235,060865,500Jun-22241,290894,900Jul-22248,390925,280Aug-22253,150946,380Sep-22258,460969,970Oct-22264,640997,080Nov-22270,5401,022,540

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Avian Influenza: Vaccination

Dr Dan Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has made an assessment of the potential merits of working with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate to amend legislation to allow avian influenza vaccines to be used in the UK.

Mark Spencer: The vaccination of poultry and captive birds excluding those in licensed zoos against avian influenza is not currently permitted. While authorised avian influenza vaccines are available in the UK, these vaccines are unlikely to provide full protection for the current strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza circulating in the UK and continental Europe, or cross-protection to other strains which may circulate in the future. At present, vaccination can help to reduce mortality, but it is likely that some vaccinated birds would still be capable of transmitting avian influenza if they became infected. This would increase the time taken to detect and eradicate the virus and many trading partners will not accept the use of vaccination.Defra in conjunction with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) will continue to monitor the development and availability of vaccines for their utility in preventing and responding to avian influenza outbreaks as they are put forward for market authorisation by vaccine manufacturers. Any future decisions on disease control measures, including the use of vaccination, will be based upon the latest scientific, ornithological, and veterinary advice.

Shellfish: Delivery Services

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to ban the sale of decapod crustaceans online where they are sent to consumers by post or courier while they are alive.

Mark Spencer: The Government currently has no plans to bring forward legislative proposals to introduce such a ban.

Avian Influenza: Disease Control

Priti Patel: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what the average period of time was that business premises affected by avian influenza outbreaks were required to be closed for in the latest period for which data is available.

Mark Spencer: Keepers at infected premises where avian influenza has been confirmed in poultry or other captive birds have a choice to either wait 12 months before restocking birds or undertake secondary cleansing and disinfection to enable them to restock earlier. During the current outbreak on average keepers who chose to undertake secondary cleansing and disinfection and restock have been able to complete this process within 184 days. Decisions around whether to undertake secondary cleansing and disinfection, and how quickly the process is completed, and therefore when business activity can resume is a commercial decision by the keeper.

Veterinary Services

Chris Stephens: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, whether she has had discussions with the RCVS Veterinary Nurses Council on changing the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 to (a) replace the criminal standard of proof with the civil standard and (b) make improvements to the Fitness to Practise disciplinary system.

Mark Spencer: Defra is grateful for the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) recommendations for reforming the Veterinary Surgeons Act to ensure that vets and veterinary nurses are regulated in line with modern regulatory practice in the future. My officials have maintained regular contact with RCVS on these matters. Defra supports the need to make changes to improve veterinary retention and simplify the rules and processes used. The Government's legislation for the forthcoming session will be announced in due course. The department will continue to work with stakeholders and RCVS to prioritise other non-legislative work to support improvements to veterinary retention.

Shellfish: Delivery Services

Ian Byrne: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the inclusion of decapod crustaceans in the Animal Welfare (Sentience) Act 2022, if she will make an estimate of the number of instances of crabs and lobsters being (a) sold online and (b) delivered live by courier in the last 12 months; and whether she has had recent discussions with (i) Amazon and (ii) other online retailers on taking steps to prevent this practice.

Mark Spencer: The Government does not hold this data. There have been no recent Ministerial discussions with online retailers on this matter.

Import of Seal Skins Regulations 1996

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Retained EU Law Bill, what plans he has to (a) retain, (b) revoke or (c) replace the Import of Seal Skins Regulations 1996.

Mark Spencer: In reviewing REUL, Defra is committed to ensuring our laws deliver improved outcomes and the highest standards in a way that is tailored to the needs of UK consumers and business. The UK has world leading standards backed by a rigorous legislative framework and it is only right that we should evaluate REUL to ensure it continues to meet our needs. Defra is in the process of analysing and assessing its REUL stock to determine what should be preserved as part of domestic law, and what should be repealed, or amended. This work will determine how we use the powers in the Bill, including, if appropriate, in relation to commission Regulation (EC) No 98/2002.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Energy

Mr Tanmanjeet Singh Dhesi: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, which energy provider supplies energy to their Department; how much carbon dioxide was emitted by their Department in the latest period for which figures are available; whether the criteria their Department uses to select an energy supplier include how environmentally friendly that supplier is; and what recent steps their Department has taken to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from its energy use.

Mark Spencer: Defra uses the Crown Commercial Services (CCS) for both electricity and gas as mandated by Cabinet Office.Defra use a REGO backed green electricity tariff from EDF to minimise the environmental impact of its electricity use.The department emitted 51,099t CO2e in 2021-22. This is a reduction of 32% or 24,000t since 2017/18 through a combination of estate rationalisation and energy efficiency initiatives.To reduce this amount further we are:looking to reduce the size of our estate in line with our property strategy;working with the Government Property Agency to install low carbon initiatives at six properties that we run on their behalf;working with the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme to replace end of life gas boilers with air source heat pumps;carrying out sustainability surveys on our properties to produce a new programme to decarbonise our buildings; andensuring sustainability is built into our major projects such as the Science Capability in Animal Health programme.

Livestock: Antibiotics

Henry Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will introduce a ban on the prophylactic use of antibiotics on healthy farm animals.

Mark Spencer: The Government remains committed to reducing the unnecessary use of antibiotics in animals while safeguarding animal welfare.   Changes to the law on veterinary medicines is one of the tools which can be used to reduce unnecessary antibiotic prescribing in animals and, as one element of a programme of interventions to help deliver the UK's 5-year national action plan on antimicrobial resistance, it is our intention to strengthen our national law in this area Over the past year the Veterinary Medicines Directorate has engaged in a comprehensive dialogue with stakeholders about a broad range of changes that we propose to the Veterinary Medicines Regulations 2013, which set out controls on marketing, manufacturing, supply and use of veterinary medicines. Proposed changes include new measures to help tackle antimicrobial resistance We are now preparing to publish a formal consultation paper setting out our proposals which will provide the opportunity for all affected stakeholders to express their views. Following the public consultation, we anticipate laying new legislation in 2023.

Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2019

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, what plans she has to (a) revoke, (b) replace or (c) retain the Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulation 2019.

Mark Spencer: The Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulation 2019 has been revoked and replaced by the Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulation 2022. Defra is in the process of analysing and assessing its retained EU law to determine what should be preserved as part of domestic law, and what should be repealed, or amended. This work will determine how we use the powers in the Bill, including in relation to the Food Information (Amendment) (England) Regulation 2022. We remain committed to maintaining our world leading standards of food safety and quality.

Monkeypox: EU Law

Stella Creasy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, with reference to the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, what plans they have to (a) revoke, (b) replace or (c) retain the Commission Decision 2003/459/EC.

Mark Spencer: In reviewing REUL, Defra is committed to ensuring our laws deliver improved outcomes and the highest standards in a way that is tailored to the needs of UK consumers and business. The UK has world leading standards backed by a rigorous legislative framework and it is only right that we should evaluate REUL to ensure it continues to meet our needs. Defra is in the process of analysing and assessing its REUL stock to determine what should be preserved as part of domestic law, and what should be repealed, or amended. This work will determine how we use the powers in the Bill, including, if appropriate, in relation to commission Regulation (EC) No 98/2002.

Pet Travel Scheme: Dogs

Ian Levy: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if her Department will introduce a requirement for visual checks to be carried out on all dogs entering via the Pet Travel Scheme.

Mark Spencer: We already operate one of the most rigorous and robust pet travel checking regimes in Europe. All non-commercial dogs, cats and ferrets entering Great Britain on approved routes (every route other than Republic of Ireland, Northern Ireland and the Crown Dependencies) under the Pet Travel rules undergo 100% documentary and identity checks by authorised pet checkers. We have no plans to introduce further visual checks.

Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs: Regulation

Sir John Hayes: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, if she will place in the House of Commons Library the latest version of the document previously produced by her Department that included the bar chart entitled Current assessment of business burdens from Defra/EU regulations, showing estimates of red tape burdens including identifying (a) percentages of EU costs and (b) direct costs to business per annum; what the title of that document is; and what assessment she has made of the potential merits of using (i) this document and (ii) parallel audits undertaken across Whitehall in order to support Government deregulation policies.

Mark Spencer: The information requested is not collated centrally and could only be provided at disproportionate cost. Defra conducts analysis of how regulations impact business to prevent unjustifiable regulatory burden. Defra is currently analysing its retained EU law (REUL) stock and determining what should be preserved as part of domestic law, as well as REUL that should be repealed, or amended. Defra will not ignore areas where deregulation is difficult. We will still be looking at opportunities to reform and streamline regulatory requirements, while reducing unnecessary burdens where we can. The REUL Bill provides a unique opportunity to reform policies that could not be amended while a member of the EU. The title of the document to which the Rt Hon Member refers is potentially 'The Costs and Benefits of Defra's Regulatory Stock: Emerging Findings From Defra's Regulation Assessment' which is available on gov.uk. The data for this wider analysis of Defra regulations is no longer collated.

Avian Influenza: Vaccination

Dr Dan Poulter: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, for what reason there are no avian influenza vaccine trials taking place in the UK.

Mark Spencer: The vaccination of poultry and captive birds excluding those in licensed zoos against avian influenza is not currently permitted. While authorised avian influenza vaccines are available in the UK, these vaccines are unlikely to provide full protection for the current strains of highly pathogenic avian influenza circulating in the UK and continental Europe, or cross-protection to other strains which may circulate in the future. At present, vaccination can help to reduce mortality, but it is likely that some vaccinated birds would still be capable of transmitting avian influenza if they became infected. This would increase the time taken to detect and eradicate the virus and many trading partners will not accept the use of vaccination.<br/> <br/> Defra in conjunction with the Veterinary Medicines Directorate will continue to monitor the development and availability of vaccines for their utility in preventing and responding to avian influenza outbreaks as they are put forward for market authorisation by vaccine manufacturers. Any future decisions on disease control measures, including the use of vaccination, will be based upon the latest scientific, ornithological, and veterinary advice.

Home Office

Immigration: Public Appointments

Catherine West: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent discussions he has had with (a) Cabinet colleagues and (b) relevant stakeholders on the appointment of a migrants commissioner; and what is the timeline for their appointment.

Robert Jenrick: A range of options have been considered for delivering the Windrush recommendations, including discussions with external stakeholders. The Home Office is taking steps to be more transparent to ensure that the department is as open as possible to all types of scrutiny, both internal and external. This requires a fundamental cultural shift in our attitude to people with different views on policy and those who make a complaint when something goes wrong.We will keep the Home Affairs Select Committee updated on the progress of all the Wendy Williams recommendations.

Asylum: Young People

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to ensure age disputed children are safeguarded within the asylum system.

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she has taken to ensure that children placed in any form of asylum accommodation are protected and safeguarded; and who is responsible for their protection and safeguarding.

Robert Jenrick: There are clear safeguarding issues which arise if a child is inadvertently treated as an adult, and equally if an adult is wrongly accepted as a child and placed in accommodation with younger children to whom they could present a risk. It is therefore of upmost importance that, where a young asylum seeker’s age is in doubt, the process of age assessment is resolved quickly and conclusively to ensure the right care is provided for that individual.Unaccompanied asylum-seeking children are supported by team leaders and support workers who are on site 24 hours a day. Further care is provided in hotels by teams of social workers and nurses.All staff, including contractors, receive a number of briefings and guidance on how to safeguard children.Local authorities have a statutory duty to protect all children. Safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children is a key local authority duty and requires effective joint working between agencies and professionals.

Airports: Security

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent assessment she has made of the adequacy of provision of specialist scanners to screen inbound packages at UK international airports.

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what information her Department holds on the number of specialist scanners available to screen inbound packages at UK international airports.

Dan Jarvis: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to review the provision of specialist scanners to screen inbound packages at UK international airports.

Robert Jenrick: Border Force deploys a range of detection equipment across the UK border to detect illicit border activity. Border Force is continually seeking to develop and invest in new capabilities.For national security reasons, Border Force does not comment on the specific technology or numbers used.

Asylum: Young People

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make it her policy to publish statistics on age-disputed young people who are initially treated as adult and later found to be children for the purposes of immigration and asylum.

Robert Jenrick: The Home Office publishes data on asylum and resettlement in the ‘Immigration Statistics Quarterly Release’. Data on the number of asylum age disputes are published in table Asy_D05 of the asylum and resettlement detailed datasets. Information on how to use the datasets can be found in the ‘Notes’ page of the workbook. The latest data relates to Q3 2022. Published data on age disputes only relate to age disputes of individuals with an asylum claim and do not include any other forms of age disputes.Information on future Home Office statistical release dates can be found in the ‘Research and statistics calendar’. Official statistics published by the Home Office are kept under review in line with the code of practice for statistics, taking into account a number of factors including user needs, as well as quality and availability of data.

National Age Assessment Board

Angela Crawley: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what progress she has made in establishing a National Age Assessment Board (NAAB); and when the NAAB will be fully operational.

Robert Jenrick: The National Age Assessment Board (NAAB) is in the process of recruiting and training suitably experienced social workers who can carry out age assessments on behalf of the Home Office. A launch date will be communicated as soon as possible.

Social Rented Housing: West Yorkshire

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, pursuant to the Answers given on 2 December 2022 to Question 95780, on Social Rented Housing: Huddersfield, and on 22 December 2022 to Question 111537, on Asylum: Housing, whether her Department is taking steps through the meetings mentioned to increase provision of Local Authority and Housing Association housing in (a) Kirklees and (b) West Yorkshire.

Mr Barry Sheerman: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Office, pursuant to the Answer of 2 December 2022 to Question 95780 on Social Rented Housing: Huddersfield and the Answer of 22 December 2022 to Question 111537 on Asylum: Housing, whether her Department has held recent meetings with the Asylum Resettlement Councils Senior Engagement Group on tackling the shortfall of (a) local authority and (b) housing association housing provision in Kirklees.

Robert Jenrick: The Asylum, Resettlement Councils Senior Engagement Group (ARCSEG) meets every 3 months, with additional meetings held outside the quarterly cycle in exceptional circumstances. The meetings are chaired by the Director of Asylum Support and Chief Executive of the Local Government Association.Accommodation provision and shortfall, such as contingency, dispersed and resettlement cohort accommodation, have and continue to feature prominently as a core agenda item for ARCSEG meetings. This is in addition to further discussion and progress tracking through other local government engagement forums such as the weekly cross-government Strategic Oversight Group and Ministerial Task Group.In the last ARCSEG meeting on 13 December 2022 there was a constructive dialogue between Home Office officials and Local Government Chief Executives on a range of accommodation and housing issues. ARCSEG actions are progressed between meetings through “Deep Dive” sub-groups, all of which have local government representation.We also regularly engage with our accommodation providers to discuss any issues that arise and ensure best practice is always followed. The performance of our providers is monitored closely by dedicated staff in each contract area, who are in daily contact with them. This is supplemented by a formal governance process which includes quarterly Strategic Review Management Boards and monthly Contract Management Groups. Service credits and subsequent improvement plans are discussed and monitored as part of this process

Refugees: Resettlement

Stephen Kinnock: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what recent progress her Department has made on the establishment of the emergency resettlement mechanism pilot; and what her planned timetable is for the completion of that pilot.

Robert Jenrick: An Emergency Resettlement Mechanism will allow the Government to provide urgent protection in exceptional circumstances to refugees referred by UNHCR as being in need of rapid emergency resettlement.Responding to the situation in Afghanistan, the UK military undertook the largest military evacuation since the Second World War, during which we evacuated c.15,000 individuals to the UK. Over 20,000 Afghans have been brought over to the UK since the fall of Kabul. This alongside the UK’s response to Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine, continues to impact on available local authority housing and support. As a result, the commencement of the pilot has been put on hold temporarilyThe UK has a strong record of helping those most in need and the UK continues to welcome refugees and people in need of protection through our resettlement and relocation schemes.

Fire and Rescue Services: Health Services

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the potential merits of annual health monitoring for all firefighters, including after retirement.

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government plans to introduce legislation that will ensure that firefighters affected by disproportionately high cancer rates receive protection and compensation.

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government plans to introduce effective decontamination policies and training across the Fire and Rescue Service.

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what plans she has to improve (a) recording and (b) monitoring of firefighter exposures to contaminants.

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government plans to take steps to help ensure adequate recording of occupation, or former occupation, of firefighters in (a) health and (b) similar records, including on death certificates.

Dan Carden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether the Government plans to introduce (a) facilities and (b) contracts for appropriate and effective PPE and workwear cleaning across all Fire and Rescue service and duty systems.

Chris Philp: The health and safety of firefighters is of great importance. The Home Office will consider the recently published study that covers Scotland to understand its conclusions. It is for individual fire and rescue authorities, as employers with responsibility for health and wellbeing, to ensure that firefighters receive the appropriate equipment and training they need to safely respond to the wide range of incidents which they attend.The “Fire and Rescue National Framework” also directs that all Fire and Rescue Authorities should have a people strategy which covers “health and safety, wellbeing, disabilities, and support (including mental health and physical support)”.In addition, The National Fire Chiefs’ Council’s Health and Wellbeing lead has established a health and wellbeing board to drive positive change across the sector which focuses on prevention, early intervention and support for individuals. The Home Office will support these initiatives.

Fire and Rescue Services: Cancer

Sir Mark Hendrick: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department,  if she will take steps to ensure the (a) monitoring of and (b) correct compensation for cancer among firefighters.

Chris Philp: The health and safety of firefighters is of great importance. The Home Office will consider the recently published study that covers Scotland to understand its conclusions. It is for individual fire and rescue authorities, as employers with responsibility for health and wellbeing, to ensure that firefighters receive the appropriate equipment and training they need to safely respond to the wide range of incidents which they attend.The “Fire and Rescue National Framework” also directs that all Fire and Rescue Authorities should have a people strategy which covers “health and safety, wellbeing, disabilities, and support (including mental health and physical support)”.In addition, The National Fire Chiefs’ Council’s Health and Wellbeing lead has established a health and wellbeing board to drive positive change across the sector which focuses on prevention, early intervention and support for individuals. The Home Office will support these initiatives.

Firearms: 3D Printing

Luke Pollard: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she plans to take steps to help tackle the production of 3D-printed guns.

Chris Philp: The Government is committed to tackling the threat posed by 3D printed firearms. The UK has some of the toughest firearms controls in the world. To protect public safety, we keep these controls under constant review to ensure that they are fit for purpose to safeguard against abuse by criminals and terrorists.3D printed firearms fall within the scope of the Firearms Act 1968 and are subject to the same controls and licensing requirements as any other firearm.We are working closely with law enforcement, which includes the National Crime Agency, as part of Project Interknow which is the multi-agency response to the threat posed by 3D printed firearms.

Police and Crime Panels: Public Appointments

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, on how many occasions local authorities have failed to make appointments under the Police and Crime Panels (Nominations, Appointments and Notifications) Regulations 2012 since the commencement of those regulations.

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether her Department has provided guidance on how local authority representatives can be removed from a Police and Crime panel under the Police and Crime Panels (Nominations, Appointments and Notifications) Regulations 2012.

Dr Matthew Offord: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an estimate of the number of occasions on which a councillor has been removed from his or her position on a Police or Crime Panel in a way other than that provided for under the Police and Crime Panels (Nominations, Appointments and Notifications) Regulations 2012; and if she will issue revised guidance to local authorities on their legal duties under those regulations.

Chris Philp: The Department is not aware of any occasions where local authorities have failed to nominate and appoint local authority members to the relevant Police and Crime Panel since the commencement of the Police Reform and Social Responsibility Act 2011.In November 2012 the Home Office published guidance on the process for nominating and appointing members to a panel, as an accompaniment to the Police and Crime Panels (Nominations, Appointments and Notifications) Regulations 2012. It can be found on GOV.UK at the following link: Police_and_Crime_Panel_Regulations.pdf (publishing.service.gov.uk).The local authorities within a given force area are required by legislation to make panel arrangements, which must include provisions about resignation, and removal, of appointed members and co-opted members of the panel. Any decision to remove a local authority member from a panel would therefore be determined locally. There are no plans to issue any new guidance to panels on their legal duties, which are set out in both Regulations and existing guidance.

Home Office: Written Questions

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named-day written questions their Department answered on time in 2022.

Chris Philp: The procedure committee regularly publish reports on parliamentary written question performance. The most recent report, covering departmental performance in Session 2021-22, can be found here: Written parliamentary questions: Departmental performance in Session 2021–22 - Committees - UK Parliament.The Home Office is working to improve our performance in answering written parliamentary questions, for details on this continuous improvement I refer the Hon Member to the letter sent from the Home Office to the Procedure Committee dated 21 June 2022 https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/23223/documents/169558/default/.

Drugs: Organised Crime

Jim Shannon: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what further steps she is taking to tackle illegal drugs gangs in the UK.

Chris Philp: Illegal drugs devastate lives, ruin families and damage communities. The Government is committed to tackling these harms, including drug-related gang activity.Our ten-year Drug Strategy, From Harm to Hope, sets out a whole system approach to combat illicit drugs through its three priorities: breaking drug supply chains; delivering a world-class treatment and recovery system; and achieving a significant reduction in demand for illicit drugs.The Home Office has committed £300m of dedicated investment over three years to tackle every phase of the drug supply chain and make it considerably harder for criminal gangs to operate.With this funding we are supporting intelligence-led approaches to interdict and seize drugs as they cross the UK border, and prevent criminal groups from bringing drugs to our streets. Across the whole of the UK, the National Crime Agency, Border Force, and local police are working in partnership, using intelligence and technology to secure our borders against the activities of drugs gangs, prevent drug trafficking and bring those responsible to justice.Through the strategy, we are also funding upstream activity to tackle overseas drug supply, which is aimed at disrupting the criminal networks seeking to traffic illegal drugs to the UK, and building resilience into supply chains.The full strategy can be found here. From harm to hope: A 10-year drugs plan to cut crime and save lives - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Abortion: Demonstrations

Scott Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, how many people have been (a) charged and (b) convicted of breaching a Public Space Protection Order around an abortion clinic in each year since 2018.

Scott Benton: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the use of Public Spaces Protection Orders to prohibit (a) silent and (b) other forms of prayer.

Chris Philp: The Home Office does not collect any data on breaches of Public Space Protection Orders.Public Space Protection Orders are designed to stop individuals or groups committing anti-social behaviour in a public space. Decisions regarding what restrictions are imposed are matters for the local authority which is required to consider people’s rights under the European Convention.

Cybercrime

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps she is taking to reduce cybercrime.

Tom Tugendhat: Tackling cyber crime is at the heart of the Government’s new National Cyber Strategy which is supported by £2.6bn of new investment over the three year Spending Review period. The National Cyber Strategy (2022-2025) has set the direction and ambition for investment and efforts in UK Cyber. Delivery of the Strategy is being supported by the National Cyber Fund. This programme has allocated investment to lead government departments to support delivery of the objectives set out in the strategy.We are continuing to invest in law enforcement capabilities at the national, regional and local levels to ensure they have the capacity to deal with the increasing volume and sophistication of cyber crime, which includes ensuring officers are being trained and upskilled.The Cyber Aware campaign is a major national advertising campaign that aims to help businesses (as well as individuals) to protect themselves online. The campaign empowers and enables the public and micro businesses to understand the best ways to stay secure online and take the necessary protective actions; and supports wider efforts to combat the threat at source via the Suspicious Email Reporting Service (SERs), and through partnership interventions. This year’s campaign was launched on 18 March and is focusing on empowering citizens, microbusinesses and sole traders to keep their email accounts secure. Cyber Aware - NCSC.GOV.UKThe Governments’ Cyber Essentials Scheme provides the basic controls all businesses should implement to protect themselves. About Cyber Essentials - NCSC.GOV.UKCyber Prevent is an important part of our response to tackling cyber crime. This is an early intervention programme aimed at deterring individuals from getting involved in cyber crime in the first place, moving deeper into cyber crime or reoffending and diverting them towards positive directions. Since 2019, all local forces now have a Cyber Prevent capability.Further good advice and helpful products from Government include the 10 Steps to Cyber Security and the Cyber Information Sharing Partnership (CISP). 10 Steps to Cyber Security - NCSC.GOV.UKWe have also rolled out Regional Cyber Resilience Centres in each of the nine policing regions, and London.  These are a collaboration between police, public, private sector and academic partners to provide subsidised or free products and cyber security consultancy services to help Small and Medium Sized Enterprise and micro businesses protect themselves better in a digital age.We have developed and we continue to innovate on a series of Active Cyber Defence measures. Active Cyber Defence is the principle of implementing security measures to strengthen the security of a network or system to make it more robust against attack. The National Cyber Security Centre’s Active Cyber Defence programme provides tools that are free at the point of use which help organisations to tackle, in a relatively automated way, a significant proportion of the cyber attacks that hit the UK.

Anti-social Behaviour

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment her Department has made of the 2014 Anti-Social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act in tackling anti-social behaviour effectively.

Karin Smyth: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of the deployment of mediation as a method of tackling anti-social behaviour.

Chris Philp: The Government is committed to tackling and preventing anti-social behaviour (ASB). We know the serious impact that persistent ASB can have on both individuals and the wider community.We provided the police, local authorities, and other local agencies with a range of flexible tools and powers that they can use to respond quickly and effectively to ASB through the Anti-social Behaviour, Crime and Policing Act 2014. Currently, no assessments been made of the deployment of mediation.It is for local areas to decide how best to deploy these powers depending on the specific circumstances. They are best placed to understand what is driving the behaviour in question, the impact that it is having, and to determine the most appropriate response.The Home Office published statutory guidance to support local areas to make effective use of these powers. The guidance sets out the importance of focusing on the needs of the victim and the local community, as well as ensuring that the relevant legal tests are met. This guidance was updated in June 2022 to ensure a victim-centered approach to tackling ASB as well as stronger use of the powers and tools in the 2014 Act.The Beating Crime Plan, published in July 2021, laid out the Government’s plan for tackling crime and ASB and committed to working with local agencies and partners to drive down ASB using the full range of powers and tools in the ‘2014 Act’, including the Community Trigger. We have updated the statutory guidance to ensure that the powers and tools are implemented more effectively.

Police: Training

Rachel Maclean: To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, whether she is taking steps to improve equality, diversity and inclusion training in police forces.

Chris Philp: The College of Policing was set up in 2012 to set and improve standards for excellence in policing, including recruitment, leadership, professional development and assessment. The College’s role is clear: setting high professional standards sharing what works best; acting as the national voice of policing; and ensuring professional development and police leadership are of the highest quality and that they uphold the highest ethics. Training standards and the national policing curriculum are set by the College of Policing. The College regularly reviews the policing curriculum, including equality, diversity and inclusion training, to ensure that it is fit for purpose. Forces provide local training and development at several different levels ranging from initial entry, leadership and ongoing development to reflect and reinforce organisational values, including diversity and equality.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities

Sleeping Rough

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to publish updated estimates of the number of people sleeping rough.

Sir Stephen Timms: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, pursuant to his oral evidence in November to the Levelling Up, Housing and Communities Select Committee, whether he has any further proposals to increase the likelihood of hitting his target of eradicating rough sleeping by 2024; and if he will make a statement.

Felicity Buchan: We have made good progress towards ending rough sleeping, with rough sleeping levels falling 49% since 2017. In September 2022, we published our new cross-government strategy 'Ending Rough Sleeping for Good', setting out how we are investing £2 billion over the next three years to tackle homelessness and rough sleeping. However we are not complacent and we know times are tough for many people.The annual rough sleeping snapshot remains our official and most robust measure of rough sleeping on a single night. The 2022 rough sleeping snapshot will be published at the end of February.We also collect monthly management information on individuals experiencing rough sleeping and accommodation to provide a more holistic picture of rough sleeping trends. We publish this on a quarterly basis. The next publication of management information, from September 2022 to December 2022, will be published alongside the annual snapshot in February.

Planning Permission: Reform

Valerie Vaz: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will extend the deadline of his consultation on reform of the National Planning Policy Framework beyond 2 March 2023.

Lucy Frazer: The Government has no such plans.If the Rt Hon Member has any specific concerns please write to me with further details.

Help to Buy Scheme

Matthew Pennycook: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of further extending the date all Help to Buy Eligible Dwellings must reach Practical Completion to 28 February 2023 to help avoid customer detriment.

Matthew Pennycook: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to The Help to Buy: Equity Loan Funding Administration Agreement, what estimate he has made of the number of homebuilders who will fail to reach Practical Completion by 31 January 2023.

Matthew Pennycook: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, with reference to The Help to Buy: Equity Loan Funding Administration Agreement, what estimate he has made of the number of Help to Buy Eligible Dwellings that will have reservations cancelled as a result of failing to reach Practical Completion by 31 January 2023.

Lucy Frazer: We have extended the Help to Buy deadline to make sure people do not lose out because of delays to developers completing their homes. Housebuilders must ensure they finish building work on all properties by 31 January.Information on how many housebuilders may fail to meet the 31 January 2023 deadline or will need to have their reservations cancelled is not held centrally.

Members: Correspondence

Mary Glindon: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he plans to respond to the correspondence of 7 November 2022 from the Hon. Member for North Tyneside.

Lee Rowley: I apologise for the delay in responding to the Hon Member’s correspondence. The Department attaches great importance to the effective and timely handling of correspondence from Honourable Members. A response was issued on 19 January 2023.

Mount Anvil: Standards

Fleur Anderson: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, if he will make an assessment of the adequacy of Mount Anvil Group Ltd’s performance in remediating life critical fire safety works in buildings over 11 metres that they (a) developed and (b) refurbished in the last 30 years in Putney constituency.

Lee Rowley: The building safety pledge has been signed by 49 of the largest developers and the Government will shortly publish a contract that makes the commitments in the pledge legally binding, and includes requirements to provide information about the progress of building safety work. Mount Anvil Group Limited is not a signatory to the building safety pledge.The Government expects all developers to do the right thing, irrespective of whether they signed the pledge. The Building Safety Act 2022 put in place legal protections for leaseholders from historical building safety costs and created new avenues to seek redress through the courts. In August, we made commencement regulations under the Act that pave the way for giving Ministers powers to stop developers that fail to do the right thing from commencing developments for which they have planning permission, and from being granted building control sign-off for their projects.

Elections: Proof of Identity

Preet Kaur Gill: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, how much funding has been allocated to (a) Birmingham City Council and (b) other councils in the West Midlands to help advertise new restrictions on voting without voter ID.

Lee Rowley: The Electoral Commission is providing a comprehensive, targeted communications campaign and guidance, raising awareness throughout the electorate of the new voter identification requirements.In addition to the Commission's campaign, the Government has allocated £4.75 million of additional funding to all local authorities with polls in May 2023 to support local communications. Of this, local authorities in the West Midlands received £480,694.

Liverpool City Region Freeport

Conor McGinn: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what the (a) process and (b) timetable is for the creation of a freeport in Liverpool City Region.

Dehenna Davison: Liverpool City Region Freeport is now fully up-and-running, having recently secured final government approvals.

Parking: Codes of Practice

Mr Clive Betts: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what steps he is taking to reintroduce the Private Parking Code of Practice; and on what date he plans to reissue that Code.

Dehenna Davison: I refer the Hon Member to the answer given to Question UIN 54476 on 12 October 2022. I am happy to write to the Hon Member’s Committee to keep them updated.

Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities: Written Questions

Jessica Morden: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, what proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named-day written questions their Department answered on time in 2022.

Dehenna Davison: Departmental performance data for the previous parliamentary session is published here.

Buildings: Safety

Royston Smith: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he expects to publish the results of the consultation on the appointment of a building safety director to support resident-led organisations with their duties under the Building Safety Act.

Lee Rowley: The consultation on the secondary legislation relating to the building safety director proposals is open until 7 February 2023. We are analysing the responses as they come through and will consider all responses prior to finalising the policy.

Leasehold

Sir Mike Penning: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, whether he has made an assessment of the effectiveness of leaseholders appointing a Building Safety Director when they live in high rise blocks with voluntary Resident Management Companies.

Lee Rowley: The Building Safety Act 2022 provides that resident-led companies will have the option to appoint a person with the relevant professional expertise to their board, to support them in meeting their building safety duties. The consultation on the secondary legislation relating to the building safety director proposals is open until 7 February 2023 and we will consider all responses prior to finalising the policy.

UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, when he will submit the Government’s combined twenty-fourth to twenty-sixth periodic report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Lee Rowley: I refer the Hon Member to the answer to Question UIN 77576, answered on the 7 November 2022.

Cabinet Office

Government Departments: Contracts

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many unique users there have been of the Contracts Finder service in each year since its founding.

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, how many unique users there have been of the Find a Tender service in each year since its founding.

Seema Malhotra: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of business (a) awareness of and (b) satisfaction with the Contracts Finder and Find a Tender services.

Jeremy Quin: The data for the Contracts Finder service and the Find a Tender Service is listed below.Contracts Finder unique users by year, based on cookies which store user information and preferences between website visits. Starting in 2020, users were able to opt out of cookies, meaning that it became a much less reliable indicator of uniques users - and led to a drop in the reported number of unique users recorded using this methodology.Contracts Finder service unique users by year:2017 - 650,0032018 - 656,6612019 - 780,9512020 - 533,809 - users begin to be able to opt out of cookies2021 - 187,9052022 - 169,530 Find a Tender Service unique users by year:2021 - 90,5032022 - 81,515 No assessment of business awareness is available. And, although user research is continually conducted with public and private sector users of both Contracts Finder and Find a Tender, no specific data is available with regards to user satisfaction. The ongoing user research is used to identify areas of improvement for both systems to meet ongoing user needs.

Public Sector: Pay

Beth Winter: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of establishing a pay review body for the civil service.

Jeremy Quin: Pay arrangements for civil servants below the Senior Civil Service is delegated to departments as separate employers. This has been the case since 1996. The delegated pay system allows departments to be able to put in place pay and reward arrangements tailored to their own business needs. Ultimately it is for departments to decide on their pay award and how it is structured in light of their own affordability and priorities, and to negotiate with their trade unions. There are no plans for an independent review body for Civil Service pay.

Public Sector: Pay

Beth Winter: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the membership criteria for an Advisory Assessment Panel that considers an appointment to a public sector pay review body.

Beth Winter: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the qualification criteria for appointment to a public sector pay review body.

Beth Winter: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will publish the membership of each public sector pay review body including whether they have (a) an employer background and (b) an employee background.

Jeremy Quin: The Membership criteria and its appointment process is set out in the Governance Code on Public Appointments. The Code states that the panel should include a departmental official and an independent member. For competitions recruiting non-executive, non-chair members of a board, the panel should also include a representative from the public body concerned.The job description and specific criteria for individual public appointment roles are provided as part of the application process and published on the public appointments website. Membership of public sector pay review bodies is published by sponsor departments on Gov.uk. The current membership of individual public sector review bodies are published by their sponsor departments on each of the review body’s Gov.uk websites.

Public Sector: Pay

Beth Winter: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the appointments process for public sector pay review bodies was last reviewed.

Jeremy Quin: The appointments process for all public appointments covered by the Public Appointments Order in Council was reviewed in 2016, and led to the publication of the current Governance Code on Public Appointments. The implementation of this process, in accordance with the principles set out in the Code, is regulated by the Commissioner for Public Appointments, who may also conduct thematic reviews on elements of the process to help inform best practice. I have not discussed with the Commissioner the reform of the public appointments process with regard to public sector review bodies.

Public Sector: Procurement

Hywel Williams: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, if he will take steps to ensure that training produced by his Department to support businesses with the delivery of the Procurement Bill will recognise that there will be differences in the procurement regimes operating in England and Wales.

Alex Burghart: The Procurement Bill will introduce a world leading procurement regime, and fundamentally improve the way public sector organisations buy goods and services.The Cabinet Office will be providing a comprehensive funded learning and development (L&D) programme to support everyone operating within the new regime to understand what is changing. Recognising that there will be some differences between the procurement regimes operating in England and Wales, Cabinet Office officials will continue to work closely with Welsh Government officials to ensure the content of the L&D materials reflects this appropriately. To enable the programme to be relevant and meaningful to all audiences, fact sheets and supporting resources will be provided to highlight relevant sector and geographical variations.

Blood: Contamination

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 11 January 2023 to Question 117872 on Blood: Contamination, how many times the cross-government working group on administering compensation payments to people affected by the infected blood scandal has met; and how many of those meetings involved a Minister.

Jeremy Quin: A cross government working group of officials meets formally on a regular basis to take forward the work of the infected blood Compensation Framework Study. As needed, meetings also take place on an ad-hoc basis. I also have regular meetings with my officials to receive updates on their work.

Blood: Contamination

Sir Gary Streeter: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what estimate he has made of when the Government will make an interim payment to victims and families of victims who received infected blood products in the 1970s and 1980s.

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Government plans to make interim compensation payments to the estates of (a) people who have died as a result of infected blood products and (b) people affected whose parents have died.

Grahame Morris: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, when the Government plans to make interim compensation payments to (a) the estates of people who have died and (b) people whose children or parents have died as a result of infected blood products.

Jeremy Quin: I refer the hon Member to the statement I made in the House on 15 December where I announced that the moral case for compensation was formally accepted. I also set out the work being carried out across government in consideration of the compensation framework study - which included specific reference to those groups who were not able to claim interim compensation.This work is intended to ensure that the Government is prepared to act swiftly in response to Sir Brian Langstaff’s final report when it is delivered.

Committee of Privileges

Mr David Jones: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, pursuant to the Answer of 29 November 2022 to Question HL3547 on Committee on Privileges, whether the second legal opinion produced by Lord Pannick on 12 October 2022 was commissioned at public expense.

Jeremy Quin: As the Government set out in its response to HL3547, it remains the case that the Government does not comment on legal advice that may or may not have been sought or received. This is in line with the long-standing policy under successive administrations.

Cabinet Office: Written Questions

Jessica Morden: To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named-day written questions their Department answered on time in 2022.

Jeremy Quin: Our internal records show that for all cases due with Parliament between 01/01/2022 and 31/12/2022 to which Cabinet Office responded, 92% of ordinary written questions were answered on time and 83% of named-day written questions were answered on time.

Treasury

Business: Energy

Sarah Olney: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the oral contribution of the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury of 9 January 2023 on Non-domestic Energy Support, Official Report, column 327, if he will publish his letter to Ofgem on the review of the non-domestic energy market.

James Cartlidge: The Chancellor’s letter to Ofgem on the review of the non-domestic energy market, dated 9 January 2023, is available here:https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1128068/CX_Letter_to_Jonathan_Brearley_0901.pdf

Members: Correspondence

Bill Esterson: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, on what date he plans to respond to the letter of 12 January 2023 from the ABIM, Craft Bakers Association, Federation of Bakers, Scottish Bakers and UKAPY on the Government's announcement on the Energy Bill Discount Scheme.

James Cartlidge: I confirm that the letter in question was received on 12 January 2023 and a response will be issued in due course in line with the usual timeframes.

Garages and Petrol Stations: Payments

Beth Winter: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the impact of reservation of funds by payment providers during petrol forecourts pay at pump transactions, on creating financial hardship for customers.

Beth Winter: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made of the implications for its policies of delays in the release to customer accounts of funds reserved during petrol forecourt pay at pump transactions.

Andrew Griffith: Industry-led changes have resulted in the implementation of new systems intended to protect both consumers and petrol retailers. Under the new system, payment terminals at the pump verify with the customer’s bank that the funds to pay for petrol are available before they begin filling their tank. Once the customer has finished filling up their vehicle, the actual value of petrol the customer has purchased will be communicated to the customer’s bank and their balance should update instantly to the amount of petrol purchased.

London Capital &amp; Finance: Compensation

Mohammad Yasin: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, with reference to the London Capital &amp; Finance (LCF) Compensation Scheme, who the LCF scheme operator is; and for what reason the LCF Scheme Operator deducts 20 per cent from the amount determined under Step Two.

Andrew Griffith: The government had established a compensation scheme for investors in the failed minibond issuer, London Capital & Finance plc (LCF). The Scheme launched on 3 November 2021 and the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) administered the Scheme on behalf of the government. Almost all eligible bondholders have now received compensation and a total of £115m has been paid out by the scheme. The Scheme paid 80% of bondholders’ principal investment in eligible bonds, up to a maximum of £68,000. Where bondholders had received interest on their bonds, distributions from the insolvency administrators, or compensation from the FSCS for LCF bonds, this reduced the amount of compensation payable under the Scheme. This appropriately balanced the interests of both bondholders and the taxpayer and ensured that all LCF bondholders receive a fair level of compensation in respect of the financial loss they have suffered. Further detail about the scheme can be found online at: www.gov.uk/lcf-compensation-scheme

Treasury: Written Questions

Jessica Morden: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what proportion of (a) ordinary and (b) named-day written questions their Department answered on time in 2022.

James Cartlidge: The Treasury’s own data shows that in 2022 Treasury ministers answered 99% of ordinary written questions on time and 99% of named day written questions on time.

Members: Correspondence

Paul Maynard: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, when he will respond to correspondence of 18 October 2022 from the hon. Member for Blackpool North and Cleveleys on behalf of a constituent on duplicate VAT invoicing.

Victoria Atkins: I would like to reassure the hon. Member that I have responded to this letter on 19 January 2023.

Orchestras and Theatres: Tax Allowances

Barbara Keeley: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 12 December 2022 to Question 105279 on Orchestras and Theatre: Tax Allowances, what the average claim amount was for the 15 per cent of valid claims for Theatre and Orchestra Tax Reliefs that were not paid within 28 days of receipt.

Victoria Atkins: HMRC is not able to disclose how much relief is currently outstanding to companies. This data is not available until the claims have been reviewed and HMRC is able to confirm how much payment is due. We do not calculate average claim amounts for those claims which were not processed within 28 days, as any figures could be misleading. They would not be representative of the range in size and complexity of claims we receive, nor demonstrate the range of reasons why these claims are not paid within 28 days. Such reasons range from simple administrative issues such as missing payment details, to more complex issues requiring the claim to be reviewed in more detail before payment can be released.

Taxation: Self-assessment

Simon Lightwood: To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that HMRC process refunds promptly for people owed payments following their self-assessment tax returns.

Victoria Atkins: HMRC has a service level agreement to issue the majority of Self-assessment (SA) repayments in 15 working days. HMRC are currently achieving this level of service, and are issuing approximately 80 per cent within 10 days, although some repayments do take longer due to additional security and compliance checks. There is an automated process for issuing repayments resulting from the submission of online SA Returns so these will be issued when the returns are submitted, subject to any additional checks.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

Digital Technology: Females

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to increase the number of females working in the technology sector.

Paul Scully: We recognise that the Tech Sector can only reach its true potential if it is fully representative of society. This Government is committed to this mission, which is why we have supported the Tech Talent Charter (TCC) since 2016. The TTC gathers data and reports on diversity statistics from 700 organisations across all sectors. This approach fosters collaboration and innovation to create a more inclusive and diverse tech workforce. For example, the TTC’s annual diversity in tech report is a key resource that encourages businesses to hire diverse talent, as well as sharing the best diversity and inclusion practices across the sector.We recognise that digital skills are fundamental to ensuring everyone can make the most of a digital future. As the department that leads on digital skills, we are focusing on broadening and deepening the pool of talent. The Digital Skills Council convenes stakeholders from across the sector to deliver industry led action on driving the growth of the digital workforce, including widening the skills pipelines, and ensuring Tech roles are accessible for all. One of the council’s objectives is to promote mechanisms to provide increasingly diverse access to digital roles and digitally enabled roles.We are also funding a new generation of AI talent through scholarships, each worth £10,000, supporting underrepresented groups, including women, to undertake AI and Data Science Conversion Courses. The conversion courses provide a masters in AI and data science, and allow those from a non-STEM background to learn the skills needed to secure employment in the UK’s cutting-edge AI and Data Science sectors. Emerging findings show that the programme is driving increased diversity - 76% of the scholarships so far have been awarded to women, leading to a 32% increase of women on the courses against comparable benchmarks.

Digital Technology

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to improve sustainability in the technology sector.

Paul Scully: Building off the success of COP26 last year, we recognise the green economy and using tech and innovation to solve Net Zero is crucial. We are supporting innovation to provide the most promising UK climate tech companies with the support they need to grow, and to help drive down global emissions. The UK Climate tech sector is worth £6.54bn and is on course to reach £17.4bn by 2030. The UK is second only to the United States for the number of climate tech startups and scaleups.DCMS has been supporting these companies, by creating an environment where tech companies can thrive. For example, DCMS has grant-funded the first government-backed programme to support the most promising climate tech companies to accelerate the UK’s path to net zero; whilst another programme works to ensure that UK tech companies are making progress towards sustainability and emissions targets.

Digital Technology: Vacancies

Julie Elliott: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to tackle skills and labour shortages in digital technology industries.

Paul Scully: DCMS works with departments across government and with industry to grow the digital workforce, tackle the digital skills gap, and support a diverse range of people into digital roles. Actions taken include the launch of the Digital Skills Council, the introduction of AI and Data Science Conversion Courses, and working with the Home Office on visa routes related to the digital workforce.DCMS launched the Digital Skills Council (DiSC) in June 2022. The council has brought together industry leaders and training experts from organisations such as Amazon Web Services and Multiverse. The council works directly with employers and is encouraging investment in employer-led initiatives focused on upskilling the UK workforce, including initiatives related to increasing the number of digital apprenticeships.Continuing to develop, attract, and train people to work with Artificial Intelligence (AI) is at the core of our plan for maintaining the UK’s position in this field. In February 2022, DCMS announced the creation of up to 2,000 additional scholarships for students studying AI and Data Science conversion course masters, helping people from underrepresented groups to join the UK’s world-leading AI industry. Along with these conversion courses, DCMS has supported the introduction of Alan Turing Institute AI research fellowships and 16 dedicated Centres at universities across the country to train 1000 extra AI PhDs.An important part of developing skills is providing inspiration to young people, which is why DCMS launched the Cyber Explorers youth-inspiration programme, which has engaged over 30,000 young people from more than 2,000 schools. To grow the cyber workforce, DCMS has also introduced the 'Upskill in Cyber' training programme and the CyberFirst interventions, which include bursary offers for undergraduate students. DCMS are currently working with the Behavioural Insights Team to understand how we can improve the perception and understanding of digital subjects, including computer science, AI, and cyber.DCMS recognises the importance of improving the diversity of the digital workforce and has supported the Tech Talent Charter since 2016. The Tech Talent Charter is helping to improve the diversity of the digital workforce by improving reporting on diversity statistics and fostering collaboration to create a more diverse tech workforce.

Sports: Females

Steve McCabe: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps her Department is taking to encourage women and girls to participate in sports when they have a fear of judgement.

Stuart Andrew: I am absolutely committed to supporting women's sport at every opportunity including pushing for greater participation. Sport England’s latest Active Lives data, published in April last year, shows that men (63%) are still more likely to be active than women (60%).There are some fantastic initiatives that exist to encourage women to take up sport and physical activity, for example Sport England’s This Girl Can campaign, which has already inspired millions of women and girls to get active regardless of shape, size and ability. This Girl Can has also been working with ukactive and the Chartered Institute for the Management of Sport and Physical Activity (CIMSPA) to provide resources and training to help leisure and fitness facilities ensure their spaces are safe and inclusive for all women.

School Games

Mike Amesbury: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment her Department has made of the value of the current and future role of the Your School Games programme; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing increased funding for that programme for the National Network of School Games Organisers.

Stuart Andrew: Sport and physical activity provide important physical and mental health benefits and also help to develop vital social connections and leadership skills that will set young people up for life.The Government is committed to ensuring that children and young people can be physically active and to increase the chances for children to take part in competitive sport.The School Games form a key part of this. In the academic year 2021/22, the School Games delivered over 2.19 million participation opportunities and 2,500 events across the country, with an equal number of boys and girls taking part.The Government confirmed that the School Games Organisers will continue for the 2022/23 academic year and is considering the position beyond that point.

Sports: Carbon Emissions

Charlotte Nichols: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to help reduce the carbon emissions caused by large-scale sporting events in the UK.

Paul Scully: Major sporting events bring a wide range of benefits to this country and the Government remains committed to maintaining its world-leading track record in this area. As part of the Government’s ‘net zero’ pledge, we work closely with domestic event organisers and international federations to ensure they are delivered as sustainably as possible.We demonstrated this, for example, through our delivery of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games. The Games had a bold ambition to be the most sustainable Games to date and set out a clear action plan which successfully reduced the environmental impact of the Games and has helped create a lasting legacy.For future events, the Gold Framework guidance on UK-level support available when bidding for and staging major sporting events includes guidance for organisers to focus on the sustainability of their event, and any associated legacy or social impact programme. This document is being refreshed with the intention of publishing an update in the coming months.

Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport: EU Law

Claire Hanna: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what legislation managed by her Department will be affected by the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill; and whether she has made an assessment of the potential impact of that Bill on creative industries.

Paul Scully: The publicly-available Retained EU Law (REUL) dashboard (available here) lists legislation in scope of the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill, including legislation affecting the creative industries.Government keeps the impact of legislation under review. The upcoming Creative Industries Sector Vision, due to be published by DCMS in the coming months, will set out how industry and Government actions will support creative businesses across the UK to innovate, invest and grow.

Tourism: India

Navendu Mishra: To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to promote British holiday destinations to tourists from India.

Stuart Andrew: The government promotes Britain as a holiday destination to tourists from India through VisitBritain, the national tourist board. India is one of VisitBritain's core markets and has staff based in Mumbai and New Delhi.VisitBritain (India) works closely with inbound UK tourism businesses to inform and educate them on the potential of the Indian market and encourage them to consider the Indian market in their offers and products.In 2022, VisitBritain (India) undertook a paid content campaign with Jio, one of India’s largest telecom service providers and content creators, to showcase visitor experiences within Birmingham and the West Midlands in tandem with the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games.As part of the wider Business and Tourism Programme (BATP), VisitBritain (India) engaged with over 1000 industry partners across India to promote Birmingham and the West Midlands using the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games to encourage longer stays.In addition to this VisitBritain has been building on the work delivered in 2019 during the Cricket World Cup to promote the north of England, positioning Manchester as the Gateway of the North.Later this month, VisitBritain will host educational trips for international trade buyers across Britain. The delegation of Indian buyers will visit the West Midlands.

House of Commons Commission

Richmond House

Michael Fabricant: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 12 January to Question 114516 on Richmond House, to what use the existing Whitehall entrance and reception hall of Richmond House will be put; and what estimate the Commission has made of the cost of (a) heating and (b) lighting this space in the next 12 months.

Sir Charles Walker: The Whitehall entrance and reception hall of Richmond House will continue to be used as an access route within the building. The Commission has not made any estimate of the cost of (a) heating and (b) lighting this space in the next 12 months; data is not collected on heating and lighting costs for individual spaces within the building.

Parliamentary Estate: Telephones

John Spellar: To ask the hon. Member for Broxbourne, representing the House of Commons Commission, what steps the Commission is taking to help ensure reliable Polycom telephone connectivity on the Parliamentary Estate.

Sir Charles Walker: The Parliamentary Digital Service is taking steps to improve and enhance the user experience of parliamentary voice services.A new Voice Programme commenced in June 2022 to help establish a reliable and resilient service in a way that supports current and future user needs. This is expected to include procurement of a new streamlined solution with a less complex support model. In addition, tactical solutions will be provided to address repeat issues experienced by specific users, including with handsets, to help ensure continuity of service until a stable long-term option is implemented.Resolution speed of major telephony incidents will continue to depend on third parties until the existing telephony infrastructure is replaced. PDS will continue to strengthen third party relationships to mitigate the risk of protracted disruption.

Women and Equalities

UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination

Anneliese Dodds: To ask the Minister for Women and Equalities, what discussions she has had with the Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the Government’s submission to the combined twenty-fourth to twenty-sixth periodic report to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

Maria Caulfield: Officials in the Cabinet Office’s Race Disparity Unit are working with colleagues in the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities on the Government’s submission to the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This submission will be released in due course.